On Edge
by NerdyMJ
Summary: Mia Blake is a reformed party girl from a dysfunctional family with too much on her plate. Like an ex that just refuses to take a hint and a special needs younger sister that's obsessed with mutants and monsters. But after an encounter with the Turtles, Mia finds herself pulled into their dangerous world and begins to wonder what will become of herself and her family because of it.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own TMNT.

Summary: Mia Blake is a stressed out, reformed party girl from a dysfunctional family with too much on her plate. Like school finals, an ex that just refuses to take a hint, and a special needs younger sister that's become obsessed with mutants and monsters. But after a chance encounter with the Turtles, Mia finds herself reluctantly pulled into their dangerous and begins to question. Then everything goes wrong. Set in the 2012 Turtleverse after the first Kraang invasion.

On Edge

01

The last bell of the day had just sounded and sixteen-year-old Mia Blake stood in the hallway of Theodore Roosevelt High School, pretending to listen to what her friends were talking about. She stared at her boyfriend, Troy Evans, silently, trying to figure out how she was going to tell him that she didn't want to be with him anymore. The list of reasons why were endless – he hid his cigarettes in her locker no matter how many times she told him not to, he flirted with other girls, he didn't care about her family, they had nothing in common, and above all else, Mia was tired of getting in trouble because of _his_ recklessness. But all those reasons why she didn't want to be with him after two years were the exact reasons that he would use against her, she knew that. Now, after a week of formulating the perfect break-up strategy, Mia finally knew what to say that would end their relationship once and for all.

"Hello, Earth to Mia!" Troy waved his hand in front of her face, breaking her train of thought.

"Huh – ?" Mia looked up at him, startled. "Yeah?"

The rest of the group laughed at her cluelessness. Troy smiled and shook his head. "Maren is having a party tonight," he said. "There's going to be vodka and stuff. You want to come?"

Mia shook her head. "I have to watch my sister," she said. "You know that."

"Yeah," Troy said, "but you watch her every night. Can't you get a sitter or something?"

Mia laughed in disbelief. Where had he been – had he seen her life lately? "As if we could afford one," she said somewhat bitterly. Her smile faded and she looked up at him. "Look," she added, "could I just talk to you alone for a sec?" She pulled her phone out and checked the time.

Ten minutes left.

"Course you can," Troy said and he led her down the hallway to slightly more deserted part of the school. "What's up?" he asked her, glancing back at their friends.

Mia sighed and said, "Look, I don't know if we should do this anymore – "

"Do what?" Troy said, looking up at her and cutting her off. "Go out – have fun?"

Mia searched his expression, calculating, but she couldn't tell what he was feeling. That was something about Troy that had pulled her in the first time: He was completely unreadable and totally unpredictable. "No," she said after a moment of silence. "No, if you want to go out, that's your business. What I'm talking about is – "

"Is what, Mia?" Troy said, and suddenly she could hear the anger in his voice. See it in his face. The mask was off. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about us, Troy!" Mia said, feeling both aggravated and intimidated by him. She knew she couldn't let that get in the way, though. She had to do this. It had to be done. "I don't think we should try to have a relationship anymore."

Troy shook his head. "Oh, geeze," he groaned in disbelief. "You mean, like, a romantic relationship?"

"I mean, like, any kind of relationship," Mia told him. "I'm tired of pretending to fit in with you and your friends. I don't have anything in common with any of you anymore and I'm tired of the trouble you cause."

"So you're breaking up with me?" Troy asked her. "Because I cause trouble because, you know, you used be something a rule breaker yourself, Mia. You used to be fun, too, you know."

The alarm on Mia's phone went off. It was three-ten. She looked up at him and shrugged. "Yeah, well," she said, "I grew up. That's life." She turned and started to walk away, but by the time she had reached the front steps, Troy had already caught up with her.

"Wait a minute, wait a minute," he said and he stepped in front of her, walking backwards down the sunny NYC sidewalk. Mia rolled her eyes. "We've been together too long for me to just give up this easily," he said. "I mean, you can't just break up with me at the first sign of trouble. There has to be another way to fix this."

Mia scoffed and pushed past him. "I've been waiting two years for you to fix things, Troy," she said, looking at him over her shoulder. "Two years. Do you have any idea how _long_ that is for a girl in high school? How _not_ normal that is?" She turned away from him and started off down the sidewalk again. Then she paused and added, "And believe it or not, all you've managed to do is make things worse between us."

Troy reached out and grabbed her by the arm, forcing her to pause and face him. They both knew she couldn't get out of his grip. "That's fair enough," he said, nodding. "So just answer me this one question – " She groaned loudly, cutting him. "Just one question, Mia!" he went on, talking over her. He waited until she was silent. "Do you still find me attractive?"

Mia stared at him in disbelief. "What?" she said, laughing. "Are you kidding?"

"No, I'm not kidding," Troy said, scowling. "Now, just shut up and answer me."

"Fine." Mia shrugged. They both knew the answer: If there was one thing Troy had, it was looks. He had big blue eyes and wavy brown hair that framed his square jaw in just the right way at just the right angle. "You're cute, okay?"

"So," Troy said. "You think I'm attractive?"

Mia frowned. "Well, I mean, you're not unattractive –"

"That means you still like me," Troy said, smiling. "And there's no reason for us to break up then. We can work things out." He kissed her on the cheek and ran back inside the school to where their friends.

"Wait!" Mia called after him. "Troy, that's not what that – oh, my god! I'm going to kill him!" But, at the moment, she had other things to worry about.

* * *

Mia's six-year-old sister, Clara, was small and mousy-haired like their older sister, Janie, with blue eyes. Right after Clara had been born, their mom had taken off and left the two of them to be raised by their dad who was an abusive drunk with a wrap sheet, while Janie was at school upstate. Mia wasn't much better, either. She was never home, which meant Clara always got the worst of the abuse. Mia just couldn't bring herself to be around place, though. Around him. Mia had only wanted to get away from him and the bad memories their home had offered. Then their dad got arrested for child abuse and petty theft when Clara was three. The two of them spent three days in a foster home together before Janie finally got back to the city. Janie transferred to NYU, but things had never been good between her and Mia. Mia knew Janie resented her because she had managed to avoid the worst of her father's abuse, because of what Clara had gone through, and because now the two of them were stuck raising Clara together with no money, no time, and CPS breathing down their necks. But Clara didn't judge Mia. Unlike Janie, Clara was always silent and forgiving. She didn't know how to hold a grudge. She just wanted to understand their family – what had happened to Daddy? Where was Mommy? Why wasn't Janie her mommy? Mia wanted to make sure she never had to understand.

"Hey, there, Clara," Mia greeted her sister on the front steps of her elementary school. She looked up at her sister's teacher, Ms. Kinsey, who walked her to the door and waited with her every day. "Hey, how was she – she try to wander off again?" Mia tried to keep her voice cheerful, but she was still irritated and shocked with the stunt Troy had pulled. She couldn't believe she had let herself walk into that.

Clara seemed to have only two hobbies: Wandering off – away from school, home, the park, the corner market – and watching trash news. The kind that liked to spread rumors about aliens invading Manhattan and mutant monsters lurking in the sewers. Clara was obsessed with it. Mia thought it was almost normal for kids to be interested in monsters or fairytale creatures of some kind, but no one could seem to tell them why she was constantly wandering away from places. It was one of the reasons why they had to take her to see a child psychiatrist twice a month.

Ms. Kinsey smiled reassuringly and shook her head. "No, Clara was very good today," she said. "I do need you to let your sister know, though, that she needs to come a parent-teacher conference next week. I put a letter about it in Clara's bag, but I know how busy she can be."

Mia nodded, frowning. She may not have been a genius, but she knew enough about school to know that parent-teacher conferences were never good news. "Yeah," she said. "Okay, no problem. Thanks, Ms. Kinsey." She grabbed Clara by the hand and led her down the steps of the school. "Say bye to your teacher, Clara."

Clara turned and waved to Ms. Kinsey silently.

* * *

Candy wrappers, water bottles, empty potato chip bags, and a Dollar Store hand-held video game with bad graphics from the 1990s littered the floor of Raphael's darkened bedroom. The walls were decorated with posters of rock bands and action movies. The wall directly above his twin, wooden bed housed a shelf full of spray paint and in the corner of the room was a stereo on an entertainment stand made out of cinder blocks and two-by-fours. Raphael lay on his bed silently, listening to the AC/DC that was blasting from his stereo and nodding his head to the beat. Then his eyes narrowed as they fell on something small and square in the darkness: The tank where Spike – AKA Slash – used to live. Before he had been mutated.

Since that day, Raphael had no one to talk to. He thought about trying to talk to Splinter about his problems, but it wasn't the same as talking to Spike. He could upset Splinter. He could let him down. He couldn't stand the idea of disappointing him.

Maybe he should buy a journal.

"Hey, Raph?"

Raphael looked up to see his older brother Leonardo poking his head inside of the doorway of the room. Raph scowled at him. Leo the leader. What did he want? "Yeah," he said, turning over onto his side so that he faced the wall. "What do you want, Leo?"

"You wanna turn off the music?" Leo asked him. "We're having a meeting in the living room about patrol tonight. You need to be there." He started to leave. Then he paused and added, looking back at him, "Oh, and lose the attitude, okay?"

"Yeah, whatever," Raphael murmured, rolling over as he listened to his brother's fading footsteps. He grabbed the remote to the stereo of the floor and switched it off. "Whatever you say, O great one." Then, climbing out of bed, he threw the remote across the room nonchalantly.

He crossed the room, closing the door behind him, and walked down the hall to the room Leo had so lovingly referred to as the "living room". Raph didn't bother kidding himself, though. They didn't have living room. They actually lived underground in an abandoned subway terminal. Their "living room" was actually a set of four concrete benches set in a sunken pit at the base of the entrance. Raph imagined it was where people would go to wait for the trains back when the place had actually been up and running. They had tried their best to make it cozy and feel like an actual living room with blankets, lots of throw pillows donated by April, a bean bag chair, a tire swing, and even an old television set equipped with a N64 and a set of rabbit ears – how the heck they got a television signal down here, Raphael had no idea. That was Donnie's area of expertise. But it wasn't a living room. It was a pit.

"What is this about us going on patrol tonight?" Raphael said, trying to keep the irritably out of his voice to avoid a fight with Leo or Splinter or whoever. He was just not in the mood right now. He tried his best to sound curious and sat down beside Michelangelo, his youngest brother, on the bench nearest the television. "I thought we were going to lay low after the whole Kraang invasion thing?"

"Well, see, Donnie doesn't seem to think it's such a good idea to leave all those mutagen canisters just lying around the city," Michelangelo filled him in, smiling.

"Especially with the Kraang and the Shredder out looking for them," Leo added. "There's no telling what they might use those canisters for."

"Exactly," Donatello said, nodding as he hauled a quark bulletin board with a map of the city taped to it out of his garage laboratory. The map was decorated with hundreds of red and green thumb tacks. He put the bulletin board in the center of the room and turned to face them. "Now, then," he said. "These thumb tacks represent areas in the city where my mutagen radar picked up on loose canisters of mutagen. The green thumb tacks represent low-risk areas where there are only a few canisters, and the red thumb tacks represent areas with, er –" He paused for a moment, struggling to find the right words. "More than a few."

"So the red areas are our main priority then?" Raphael asked. He turned to his brothers for confirmation. "Right?"

"I don't know," Leo said, shaking his head. "I mean, they're definitely a problem, but I'm not sure if it's a good idea to leave any canisters out there just waiting to be found by an unsuspecting human."

"Yeah," Michelangelo said, grinning. "Just think of all the cool new mutations that could happen, though!"

Leo scowled at him. "Sounds like just what we need," he said. "More enemies."

"Yeah," Raphael said, "but you gotta figure it like this: Those red zones mean twice as many as humans are in danger than in the green ones."

There was a moment of silence before Donnie said hesitantly, "That is true and a lot more of the red zones are residential, too." He pointed to an area of the map. "This one here is even in the same school district as April." He looked at Leo. "A lot of people are in danger here, Leo."

"Sometimes," a voice said, and they all turned to see Master Splinter walking towards them, leaning on his staff. "In dark times, we must sacrifice the lives of a few to save many." He came a halt, facing Leo. "I am afraid this may be one of those times."

Raphael nodded in silent agreement with his master. Sometimes he hated being right.

* * *

The SpongeBob Squarepants alarm clock that stood on the nightstand that the divided the bedroom Mia shared with Clara read eight-thirty PM exactly. Mia sat on her bed silently, trying to finish her Global History homework. She had finally managed to get Clara to fall asleep ten minutes ago and now she had a mountain of schoolwork to do. And Troy would _not _stop calling. She shoved her cellphone in the pocket of the hoody she was wearing and scribbled down the answer to the first question. Then she began searching her book for the answer to the next one.

At that exact moment, as if on cue, Mia heard the front of their bedroom apartment open and slam shut. She froze, waiting. "Mia!" Janie shouted from the living room a moment later.

Mia sighed and slammed her textbook shut. She stood up and walked to the ever-messy living room where Clara was asleep on the couch and Janie was in the doorway, scowling. Janie looked like an older version of Clara with mousier hair, bluer eyes, and a cleft in her narrow chin.

"Why isn't Clara in bed?" Janie demanded.

Mia looked at her. "She just fell asleep there after dinner," she said. "I didn't want to move her because I know how long it takes for her to fall asleep again."

"So now _I _have to wake her up and try to get her to bed?" Janie asked, raising her eyebrows. "Do you realize I have to be in school in an hour?"

"Well, I'm sorry," Mia said, except she actually wasn't. She had done everything Janie had asked her: Helped Clara with her homework, made her dinner, and make sure she got to sleep. Now, she was being yelled at for it and she could feel the anger creeping into her voice. "She was exhausted and I have schoolwork to do. I wasn't about to – "

"Just stop making excuses, okay?" Janie said, pushing past her. She walked over to the couch and began to shake Clara awake gently. "You know, I'm the one working two jobs to take care of you guys and spending my days off taking classes at a school I hate in a city I detest." She looked at her younger sister. "And you don't see me making excuses, do you?"

"Only unless you need a reason to complain about us!" Mia snapped at her angrily. "Maybe you should have just let us rot in foster care. Then your life would be easier, wouldn't it?" She stormed across the room and threw on her sneakers. Then she left, slamming the door behind her.

Mia could hear Janie calling after her as she ran down the stairs to the first floor and out of the grubby, moldy lobby of the apartment building. She could hear Clara's confused, sleepy whimpers – the first sounds she had made in a month. But Mia wasn't turning back. She needed to get out of there if only for a moment. Every day it was the same thing. She did everything she was supposed to and still Janie was mad at her. No matter how she tried to help and make things better, Janie still had not forgiven her.

Mia walked down the sidewalk silently, huffing angrily as she went. Her breath came out in misty, white clouds and as she walked, she realized that the streets were strangely empty. True, she did not live in the greatest neighborhood, but she knew all of the neighbors and they were all good people. She had never even heard of so much as a mugging in this neighborhood. So where was everyone? She thought, looking up and down the street. Then she rounded the corner and that was when she saw them: Four men huddled under the light of a flickering streetlamp in the alley between a low-rise and the corner market. One of them was fat and balding beneath his baseball cap, counting the money in his fist as he turned to leave. The other three were Asian, decorated with matching tattoos. One was a giant with bulging muscles that towered over the other two, the next was shorter with a mustache, and the last was a small, thin man with beady eyes, and a cruel, twisted smile. He was the one holding the canister. By the time Mia had time to register all of this, their eyes had fallen on her.

"She's seen the canister!" the thin man shouted.

It was then that Mia fully realized what was happening and that she should have started running a long time ago. But it was too late now. Her entire body had erupted in goosebumps and she was stuck – completely frozen in place, no matter how hard she tried to force herself to move. Then before she had time to process the moment, she was on the ground in the alley and her head collided with the concrete, filling her eyes with tears as blood began to pool at the base of her skull. Blinking to clear her blurred vision, Mia saw the men standing over her.

"Now," said the thin guy, who seemed to be the leader of this gang. "We're gonna make you forget whatever it is you saw." And he pulled a small, thin sledgehammer out of his pocket.

* * *

Raphael pulled out of a back-flip and landed silently on the roof of a building with six jet black chimneys that pierced the night sky and a billboard that deemed the building the Dandelion Bread Factory. A few feet away from him, Leonardo was talking quietly with Donatello, who was trying to use his mutagen radar to get a more accurate reading on the location of any canisters in the area. Michelangelo was roof jumping the series of buildings a couple hundred yards behind them, performing elaborate tricks and flips mid-air while humming the theme to _Mission Impossible _with all the silence of a freight train.

Raphael sighed and wandered over to the edge of the roof, rolling his eyes as Mikey pulled out of a corkscrew and – finally – landed on the roof of the bakery. "Hey, Mikey," he said. "I thought we were supposed to be ninjas, not ballerinas?" He sat down on the ledge overlooking the street below.

Mikey skidded a halt and looked at him, smiling coolly. "Pfft!" he scoffed."Don't let my mad skills get to you, bro. 'Sides, don't you know the ladies love a fella that can throw down on the dance floor?"

"Too bad you're a turtle then," Raph replied in a murmur too quiet for anyone to hear.

As if any of them would ever get girlfriends, he thought, fixing his gaze on the blinking red light of a helicopter somewhere high above them. He thought of the way Donnie looked at April – the way he had looked at her since the first time he had laid eyes on her. At first, it had been fun to watch and to make fun of him, but over time, it just gotten more and more painful to see. Especially now that it was so obvious that April did not feel the same way about his brother. Of course, no one had the heart to tell Donnie that. Not even Raphael, but he wasn't stupid, either. He was sort of glad he would never have to worry about that sort of thing. He didn't need that kind of drama in his life.

"Alright, guys," Leonardo said, breaking his train of thought. "Donnie's got a lock on a canister just a few streets east from here –"

"So what are we standing here for?" Raphael said, jumping to his feet. "Let's get going!"

He pushed past his brothers and leapt off the bakery, heading east. The others were behind him as he ran across the roof of the neighboring appliance store. Immediately, he felt better. No matter how much Splinter or Leo or anyone stressed that these trips up to the surface world weren't for fun, but running across these roofs was one of the few times when Raphael felt like he could forget about everything. But it didn't make him happy, exactly, because he knew what he was actually here to do. It just made him feel content. At ease.

"Raphael!" Leo grabbed him by the shoulder and spun him around sharply as they landed on the roof an apartment building.

"What?" Raph spat at him. "What the heck are you stopping me for?"

"Well, if you had been listening," Donatello said quickly, panting slightly. "You would know that the canister we're looking for is right around –"

He was cut off then by an ear-shattering scream.

* * *

Mia lay on the ground, curled up into the fetal position. This was the one thing she knew about fighting: Curl up into a ball and you should be okay. But she wasn't okay. The hammer came down over and over again, landing each time with a sickening _thud_. She could feel blood running down her face and seeping through her shirt. Then another man kicked her in the abdomen. Then the other punched her in the face. Every part of her ached.

Then for a split second, everything stopped and she found herself on her hands and knees, coughing. Trying to catch her breath and just process everything. Then the hammer slammed her back into the concrete floor of the alley. A small voice inside of her head told Mia she didn't have a chance. She never had a chance. This was New York City. Something like this was bound to happen eventually, but that couldn't be true, could it?

Mia had lived in this neighborhood for years. The people in the building right beside her had babysat Clara for two years back when she had been in middle school. That was the worst part – she was so close to home, so close to her family. She knew she could get away if she just ran hard enough. In that instant, adrenaline flooded her veins and she jumped to her feet. She managed to dodge a blow from the sledgehammer and then elbowed the giant in the face as he tried to grab her. Then she took off running down the alley.

"Get her!" Mia heard the leader of the gang yell.

Then Mia heard the sound of gunshots exploding off the walls of the ally, and the sensation was instantaneous: She fell to the ground immediately as fire was set to her calf. Her body rocked with pain as blood and tears streamed down her face. Her breath came out in sharp, short, choked sobs that sent pain shooting through her chest. The adrenaline was gone now. All she felt now was white-hot, searing pain as she became aware of the gangsters drawing nearer.

Then, suddenly, an angry, ear-splitting scream filled the air, and the ally was flooded with black smoke.

* * *

Raphael hit the floor of the alley and ran at Fong, the leader of the Purple Dragons. He knew Leo would want to take him out, but he didn't care. He grabbed Fong by the arm and threw him against the wall of the ally, causing him to drop the sledgehammer. He was vaguely aware of the sound of the canister clattering to the floor, but he wasn't thinking. He had lost the control the second he had seen that gun – that gun one of Fong's thugs had pulled on an innocent girl. He hit him over and over again.

"Raphael!" Leonardo shouted, grabbing him by the wrist. "Calm down – we have the canister!"

Raphael paused and then he realized that Fong was on the floor of the ally, bloody and whimpering. He looked from Fong to Leo and back again. Leo held the canister, which was cracked slightly, in his left hand. He looked up and down the ally. The other Dragons had gotten away and the smoke from Donnie's smoke bomb had long since cleared.

Still panting, Raphael nodded, and turned. Then he froze as his eyes fell on the girl the Dragons had been attacking and he felt dread flood his stomach. She lay on the ground in a crumpled heap. Her long black hair fell in messy curtains over her ivory face. Her expression was made unreadable by the rivers of blood and tears that flowed down her face.

Without thinking, Raphael found himself moving towards her. "Kid," he said and he was shocked by the urgency he heard in his voice. "Kid, are you alright?" He edged closer to her and his eyes wandered to her hands, which she had curled into claws and wrapped around the bullet wound in her leg.

Her eyes snapped on him then huge, brown, wild with pain and agony. Then her gaze wandered to his brothers.

"Raphael!" Leonardo said. "We can't help her – she needs a doctor!"

Raphael ignored him and moved closer to her, his fingers reaching out to touch her. He knew then they could help her. "Kid," he said again. "Are you alright?"

Her eyes snapped back to him. "D-don't touch me!" she shrieked, shrinking away from him. She clung closer to the wall of the ally. "Don't, please...!" Her voice broke off in a sob.

It was then that it hit him: She was afraid of him. Of course, she was. He was a mutant turtle. A monster. To her, he was just as scary as the Purple Dragons.

"Hey, you guys," Michelangelo called from the top of the low-rise apartment building directly beside them. "We need to go. The cops are coming!" The sound of sirens filled the air.

Leo walked over to him. "Raphael," he said sternly. "We need to go _now_. Listen to me – we cannot help her."

Donatello nodded from his place on the fire escape. "Leo's right, Raph," he said. "She's too badly wounded – she needs a doctor."

Raphael ignored them. Instead, he took the T-phone from his belt silently and dropped it at the girl's feet. "If you ever need anything, call us," he said. "We won't hurt you. We're the good guys, kid."

Then he turned and leapt up the fire escape in three, perfectly executed jumps. He stepped onto the roof of the lowrise and walked away.

A/N: First of all, if you made it all the way to this Author's Note, then I would like to say thank you for sticking with me to the end of my first chapter. I would also like to ask you to stick with me until the end of the entire fanfiction. I understand that a lot of the members of this fandom do not enjoy reading about OCs and may not agree with the direction I am planning on taking this fic in, but I am writing this as a personal challenge to myself. I feel that this is grey area in TMNT universe that has not be explored nearly enough, and I have decided to explore to better myself as a writer and I'd love to hear some feedback from my fellow fans or critics on the characters I am introducing to the universe and to the events taking place in the story. If you're willing to do that, thank you in advance.  
And thanks again, if you read all the way to this way.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own TMNT.

A/N: Hey, guys, sorry it took me so long to get this up. Long story short, I just got freaking pummeled by my depression and unfortunately, it got in the way of my writing. I'm really sorry about that and hope that you can all manage to forgive me for the wait. Good news is, I've already started work on the third chapter and hope to have it up very soon. Bad news is, I'm not 100% going to put Casey in this story. I'm just not overly fond of his character series, but if you guys would like to see him in the fic, then please let me know in the reviews and I'll figure out a way to write him in.  
Thanks, guys. Happy reading! :D

02

Mia lay silently in the darkness curled up into a ball, her hair and clothing weighed down by the blood she had lost. She couldn't feel anything, except for the pain. It was enough to block out all of her other worries and feelings. Sirens echoed inside her head, moving closer and then infinitely farther away as jewel-bright eyes stared down at her. She couldn't tell the color of them at first. Then they came into focus: Two perfectly round, emerald green eyes, huge with shock – and worry?

_"Hey, kid – kid, are you alright?!"_

The sirens were replaced by a voice and Mia knew it must have belonged to him. It was heavy with a Brooklyn accent and mirrored the emotions in his gaze. The sound of it shocked her and, for a moment, she forgot the pain she felt. This person – this boy sounded both distant and nearby, and almost familiar, but she wasn't sure how. Did they go to school together – or maybe he lived near her?

_"Kid, are you alright?!"_

The boy's question echoed inside of her head for what felt like hours. Each time he asked, he sounded more worried and shocked than the time before. Mia wanted to answer him. She wanted to tell him everything was fine. That she was going to be okay, but her breath was trapped inside of her lungs and she couldn't bring herself to form the words, no matter how hard she tried. Then the pain came back just the same as before – a searing, white-hot fire that spread like wildfire, starting at the base of her skull and spreading throughout her.

The green-eyed boy spoke in a sad, far-away voice. _"If you ever need anything...Call us. We won't hurt you, kid..."_ Then his voice faded away and so did he.

Glaring, white, light shone in Mia's eyes, blinding her. Her entire body ached with searing pain. Groaning, she looked away from the light and reached up to push it out of her face. Then she paused when she saw the thin, clear tube that had crept beneath the skin of her arm at some point she couldn't remember. She looked around silently, confused. She was in a small bed in a cubicle made of sheer, plastic curtains with two chairs and a small wheeled table at the foot of it. A pale, gray cast wrapped around her right leg and reaching up, Mia felt a thick, gauze bandage at the very base of her skull. She was in the hospital, she realized.

Then before she had time to really process what was happening, she found herself being slammed back against the bed. Instantly, pain shot throughout her body and she cried out loudly. She looked down to see Clara sitting in her lap, hugging her tightly.

"Clara –" Mia started but she was cut off by the wave of emotion that hit her. She was alive, somehow, even though she wasn't entirely sure what had happened to put her here. All she could remembered was being hurt by those thugs. None of that mattered, though. All that mattered was that she got to see her sister. "Omg," she said as tears brimmed up in her eyes. "Clara, I'm so happy to see you – I'm so glad that you're safe!" She wrapped her arms around Clara and hugged her as tight as she possibly could.

Then Clara pulled away from her and Mia saw a small, green oblong object clutched in her sister's hand.

Mia frowned. "Clara," she said. "Where did you get that?" She pointed to the object.

Clara frowned at her and held out her hand, offering the thing to her.

Mia took it and turned it over in her hand. It was some sort of homemade cellphone designed to look like – like a turtle shell? Mia pushed a button and the phone chirped into life. The words TURTLE POWER blinked across the screen in neon-green lettering. Then a picture appeared: A long-shot of an oversized turtle with herculean muscles that was covered in scars. A pair of three-pronged knives hung from a frayed leather belt and two perfectly round, emerald green eyes peered up at her from behind a bright red mask.

Mia gaped at the phone's screen. "The boy from my dream –" she gasped unable to finish the thought. Suddenly, she remembered everything perfectly.

* * *

Raphael half-walked, half-ran down the steps of the sewer lair. He made a beeline for the attack dummy that stood on the outskirts of the pit. He just wanted to beat on something.

"What the heck were you thinking?"

But, of course, that wasn't going to happen.

Raph paused and turned to face Leonardo and the others. Almost an hour had passed since their run-in with the Dragons, and they had managed to collect ten canisters of mutagen. But there were more out there. Thanks to him. He had ran aimlessly ahead of the others, barely aware of the orders Leo kept barking at him or the questions the others kept repeating. The girl's voice - her sobs, her screams - was trapped inside of his brain, eating away at him, begging him to turn back. Filling him an unusual mixture of misery and anger. Then he had remembered:

_"__Don't touch me! D-don't, please!" _

This memory kept crashing over him like a freaking tidal wave, dragging him back to reality while the sounds her screams and that gunshot kept pulling him away from it. He didn't know why. Maybe because this time it hadn't been a faceless mass of sheer panic that needed saving. Maybe because this girl had been on her own with no weapons, no skills, and no one to help her. Just alone with her fear.

Her fear of him.

Once the thought had sunk in, Raph couldn't stop himself from turning around and heading back to the lair. At least he'd have something to punch there.

"Raphael," Leonardo said angrily. "Seriously, _what _were you thinking?"

Raph blinked at his brother, trying to regain his train of thought and scoffed. "You're going to have to be a bit more specific, Leo."

"I think you know what I'm talking about," Leo said, crossing his arms.

"Yeah, you know," Michelangelo chimed in, waving his nunchucks over his head wildly. "When you momentarily lost your mind and pawned your T-phone off on that girl." He made the cuckoo symbol with one of his chucks.

"You can't just give out Turtle Tech to random humans, Raph," Donatello said, nodding in agreement.

"Oh, what," Raph said, looking at him. "You mean like you did with April. That's not allowed?" He raised his eyebrows at him in false surprise.

Donnie sputtered wordlessly for a moment and then spat at him angrily, "April's different! Besides," he added, gesturing to his garage laboratory. "Hasn't it occurred to you whose job it's going to be replace that tech – mine! I'm going to have to rebuild it. I have a life, you know!" He jabbed him in the chest angrily.

Without even thinking, Raphael took one of his sai off of his belt and pointed it back at him. "Back off, Donnie," he growled. He may have been playing it cool before, but he was getting real tired of this real fast. He had been pissed off ever since they had saved that girl and no matter how hard he tried to make them see he didn't want to talk to them, his brothers just wouldn't shut up. Why did he have explain everything he did to them?

"What is going on?!"

Raphael jumped at the sound of Splinter's voice. Then he turned to face him and felt his anger evaporate immediately. There was no hiding it now. "Master Splinter," he started with dread in his voice. "T-there was a girl – "

"Oh, a girl," Splinter said, smiling and feigning surprised interest. "Why am I not surprised?!" he added in an irritated growl. "Tell me what has happened now!"

Raphael shot dark glances at his brothers. Then he looked back at Splinter and began explaining the situation with the girl and the Dragons.

* * *

Mia spent about ten minutes looking through all the pictures and information on the phone, trying to figure out what was going on. The more she found on the phone, the more confused she got. The one this phone belonged to – apparently, he was called Raphael – wasn't the only walking, talking, bipedal, giant turtle in existence. There were three others tagged in his photos that were also listed in contacts along with a human girl named April and two other contacts listed as Splinter and Pulverizer. How the heck was there not one but four humanoid turtles in NYC and how had one of them managed to save her?

"Oh, Clara, look what I have!"

When she heard the sound of Janie's voice, Mia pounded what seemed to be the power button on the phone and shoved it underneath her pillow.

"Mia?"

She looked up at Janie, who was standing at her the foot of her bed carrying two trays of pancakes. "Oh, hey," Mia said, forcing herself to smile. She slid her hand slowly out from underneath the pillow, trying her best to make it look natural. There was no way she could let Janie see that phone for two reasons: First of all, she would assume that it was all Mia's fault that Clara was now obsessed with monsters and mutants just for having the stupid thing. And, second of all, Janie would think she was a complete lunatic for thinking that a giant turtle named Raphael – who easily could have been a creation of Photoshop – had actually saved her life.

Janie dropped the trays of food onto the table next to the bed where Clara had been coloring on some computer paper, and sat down in the nearest chair. "So you're awake, huh?" she asked, smiling. "Do you remember anything about last night? The doctor said you hit your head pretty hard, so we weren't sure if you'd be able to remember much."

"I remember a lot of what happened, actually," Mia told her, nodding.

"Good, good," Janie said. "Do you remember anything about how your attackers got away, though? I mean, did they just run away when they heard the sirens or –"

"It was definitely the sirens," Mia said, cutting her off and wondering if she had spoken a bit too quickly. "They just scared them off."

At that exact moment, Clara jumped to her feet, knocking the food to the floor with a splat as she began waving her drawing around silently.

"Omg, Clara!" Janie cried out, grabbing a fistful of napkins to clean up the mess with.

"It's not a big deal," Mia said reassuringly. "We can get more food. She just wants to show you her drawing."

"Would you shut up?" Janie shot at her, scowling. "That food costs ten dollars a tray. There's no way we can afford more than what I already bought and Clara hasn't even eaten breakfast yet because we've been waiting for you to wake up!"

"Well, hey, guys!"

Mia turned to see Troy standing in the doorway of the cubicle, bearing a bouquet of wilted sunflowers and what seemed to be a binder full of her homework from her first five periods of school. Great, she couldn't keep from thinking, now he had decided to be responsible.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own TMNT.

03

"And just about done," Raphael said, pulling his arm out from under Michelangelo's bed. "Oh, gross," he cried out when he saw the moldy teddy bear he'd retrieved from the abyss. "Unbelievable," he muttered, getting to his feet and shaking his head.

He stood and surveyed the room silently. It had been exactly one week since the incident with the Purple Dragons, and one week since Splinter had put him on clean-up duty for the entire lair. It was supposed to be a punishment, but Raph knew that the real reason Splinter was making him do this was to keep him distracted, and it was working. Most of the anxiety and depression he had felt on that night was gone now thanks to his master's guidance, but it still sucked. That was a whole week he could have spent beating Super Mario 64.

"Hey, you found Booboo!"

Raphael looked up to see Michelangelo standing in the doorway. Then he looked from the bear to his brother and back again. "You mean you _like_ this thing?" he said skeptically. The bear's stuffing was leaking out from beneath a mountain of duct-tape and there was an aging piece of pizza plastered across it's face that had begun to sprout mushrooms of the non-editable variety.

"Of course," Mikey said, taking the bear from him. "Booboo's my bro. I have had him since forever ago. Thanks for finding him." He peeled the pizza off the bear's face and ate it in one bite.

Raph worked hard to keep a look of disgust off his face. "Yeah, whatever," he said, grabbing the three bulging bags of garbage off the floor of the room. "Just do me a favor and _try _to keep it clean in here." He started to leave the room.

"Oh, btw," Michelangelo said, flopping down onto his newly made bed. "April is here. She said something about wanting to talk to you."

Raphael paused and looked at Mikey. "Did she say why?" he asked him.

"Don't think so," Michelangelo said, throwing Booboo up into the air and catching him again. "I sort of spaced out after DBZ came on, you know?"

Raphael sighed, shaking his head. "Yeah, I know," he muttered. Mikey had the attention span of a freaking flea.

He walked the past pit and into the kitchen, wondering what April could want. It wasn't all that long ago that she had been avoiding him and the others like the plague – not that they didn't deserve it. It was because of them that her dad was now a giant, mutated fruit bat. But, lately, she had started coming around the lair again and had even spent the night a couple of times. Raph thought it was because she had finally decided that Donatello had suffered enough of the silent treatment – either that or she was trying to torture him with the new "friend", Casey Jones, she had brought with her. No one really knew how to feel about Casey, except for Donnie who hated him. Raph thought Casey would have been alright if hadn't been for April situation or the regular urge he felt to punch him in the face whenever he said something stupid.

"Oh, Raph, you got a minute?"

Raphael cringed at the sound of April's voice as he dropped the garbage bags into the compressor, and silently prayed that she wasn't about to ask him to help her decide who she should take with her to the school dance or some other girly thing. "Yeah, sure," he said, looking up as she walked over to him. He sat down across from her at the large, stainless island table that took up the majority of the kitchen.

"So I hope you don't mind," April said, smiling at him, "but I kind of wanted to talk to you about that girl you guys saved – you know, from the Dragons. Donnie told me all about what happened."

Raphael felt his spine turn immediately rigid. This was exactly the thing he had been trying not to think about. This was exactly the thing he had been trying so hard to forget about, but despite his best efforts, he hadn't been able to. Not completely. Most of what he remembered about her had just faded into a blur – her face, the look in her eyes on that night, the way her blood had soaked through her clothes as she lay unable to move. All of those things he had fixated on one week ago that had made him want to turn and run back to that ally had become a painful memory, except for one detail: Her voice. It was still trapped inside his head like a song set on "Repeat". Whenever someone put on a horror movie, he heard her screaming instead of the B-grade actors on the screen. If he ever had a nightmare, it was her scream he heard instead of his own. Except for the times he dreamed about soaring through the city, jumping from roof to roof, searching for someone he knew was in danger only to hear her words from that night again:

_"Don't touch me! D-don't, please!" _

It just wouldn't go away, no matter how hard he tried to block it out. That was why a small part of him was constantly wondering if she was okay or if she would ever use that T-phone to contact him. But...No, she wouldn't. Why would she reach out to someone she was afraid of?

"Raph?" April said, breaking his train. "Raph, it's about tha–"

"What about her?" Raphael snapped, cutting her off. He hadn't meant to, but even the mention of her just made the screams come rushing back. His head was already aching from the effort he was putting into blocking them out.

April frowned, looking slightly hurt and said, "Nothing..." Her voice trailed off. Then after a moment of careful thought she added, "It's just that I'm pretty sure she and I go to school together."

Raphael looked up at her. "What?" he asked her. Then he remembered. The area they had been patrolling that night had been in April's school district. In fact, April was the whole reason they had been in that part of the city.

"Well," April said, "I found a girl that sort of sounds like her and she missed a couple days of school last week that match up with when the attack was. Plus, it looks like she just got out of the hospital and the rumor is that she was jumped by some thugs or whatever. Hold on." She pulled out her phone and began tapping away at it. Then she held it out to him hesitantly. "Is that her – the girl you saved?"

It took every ounce of strength Raphael had to keep from slapping the phone out of April's hand when he saw what was on the screen. If he had known she was going to bombard him with this, he would have just locked himself in his room and stayed there. Now, he stared silently, in stony-faced shock at the Friendspace page she had pulled up that had a huge picture of the girl splashed across the profile banner. In the picture, she was sitting on the floor of a messy living room with bad lighting, surrounded by text books with a little mousy-haired girl not much older than five or six sitting beside her, staring up at her. Her long, black hair was piled on her head in a sloppy bun and her eyes were lit up as she smiled down at the younger girl, who Raph thought must have been her sister or something. Then his eyes drifted down to her name: Mia Blake.

And that was when he lost it. He grabbed the phone from April and slammed it face down on the tabletop. "Why the hell are you showing me this, April?" he growled at her. "I didn't ask for you to tell me this or to show me this or to find out anything about her!" He jumped to his feet and stormed out of the kitchen. He knew he had crossed a line, and he could feel the tension that had filled the sewer lair.

"So that was her then?" April asked him matter-of-factly.

"April, stop it," Leonardo said from his spot in the pit. He scowled at his brother. "What is your problem, Raph – April was only trying to help."

"My – my problem?!" Raphael sputtered, scowling right back at him. Then he stopped himself because he had almost said too much. He took a breath and said, panting, "I don't freaking know. I don't have a problem, Leo. I just want to be left alone."

He pushed past Leo and started off for his room, knowing everything he had said back there was a lie. He knew exactly what was wrong. Her name was Mia. Mia Blake, that's what was wrong. He couldn't handle her having a name. He couldn't handle _knowing _her name. That made her real – an actual, living, breathing person. Not just a bad memory he could move on from and forget about. No. Now, she was Mia and Mia was afraid of him. Mia hated him. Mia thought he was a monster, he thought as he closed the door to his bedroom behind him.

Then he threw himself down on the bed and let his mind drift back to that night, back to his talk with Splinter in the dojo:

_Raphael stared up at Splinter as they knelt side by side on the raised platform of the dojo. He knew his master wasn't mad at him anymore. He could tell by how disappointed he looked, but he still couldn't keep the words from coming out. "I-I just wanted her to understand," he said in a shaking, helpless voice that made him ashamed to even think about. "I just didn't want her to be afraid, Sensei. I was just wanted her to know she didn't have to be..." His voice trailed off and he looked down at the dozen or so oriental rugs that made up the training mats he had been using his whole life. _

_ Splinter sighed. Then he reached out and put his hand on his shoulder. "What is done is done, my son," he said simply. He was silent for a moment before he went on. "All warriors have battles that they wish to forget. Your brothers will have them eventually." He grabbed his staff off the floor and pushed himself to his feet. "It is best you try to forget what has happened tonight, Raphael, so that it does not haunt you in the future as well." _

And that was exactly what Raphael had been trying to do. To forget everything about her and that night. To block out the gunshots, the screams, the sounds of her sobbing in agony. To force himself into not worrying about her. But she had a name now, and suddenly, he was finding that a lot harder to do.

* * *

Mia lay in her bed silently, her brain fuzzy with sleep and her eyes watering with tears for the third time in a week. She wasn't sure why, but the counselor she was being forced to see at school said it was anxiety from the attack. But maybe she was just afraid she was losing her mind?

Ever since she had woken up in the hospital, Mia had been trying to avoid thinking about the boy who had saved her. The boy who also happened to be a giant, talking turtle named Raphael. Once or twice her curiosity had gotten the better of her and she gone online to see if she could proof of his existence. But all she managed to find were some blurry videos on blogs and some old news clips from questionable sources. Mostly, though, she just wanted to forget the whole thing had ever happened simply because she was tired. She was tired of wondering why or how a giant turtle was living in NYC, she was tired of looking over her shoulder when she was walking Clara to school, and she was tired of getting yelled at for the growing stockpile of MACE she had built in her closet because she didn't know how else to defend herself – especially since she was in a cast and walking on crutches – if she was ever attacked again.

So she invented a quick lie about the strange cellphone being a toy Clara must have brought home from school and just let her play with it. It was definitely the easiest way to explain her newest obsession: Turtles.

"Mia, what are you still doing in bed?" Janie asked, appearing in the doorway of the room. "You need to get ready. Troy is going to be here soon."

Mia cringed at the mention of Troy's name as she climbed out of bed. He had been all over her ever since she got out of the hospital. He called her day and night, and walked her to and from school, no matter how cold she was to him. She didn't what else to do. She had stopped speaking to him in school, wasn't taking his calls, and was actively avoiding him as much as possible. He just wouldn't leave her alone, though. Nonetheless, she knew that having him walk her to school made Janie feel more at ease, so she kept her mouth shut about how she hated it just to keep Janie from being mad at her. "Alright," she muttered, forcing herself to sit up. She grabbed her crutches off the floor and got dressed quickly.

Then when she was finished, she paused. There was the phone just sitting there in the middle of a pile of Clara's toys on the floor. For the first time since she realized she had it, the phone was silent. Before it had been ringing nonstop with all kinds of calls and nonstop text messages. She had thought about looking through some of them, but knew that she would probably regret it. Now, though, its silence filled her with an unusual sort of unease. A part of Mia had realized that she had said horrible things to Raphael the night she had been attacked, but she didn't know what to do. How was she supposed to move on with her life if she was constantly stressed out over something she'd said to someone she might possibly never see again? Did he even care if she apologized?

Mia balanced herself on the crutches and picked the phone up silently. Then she threw it into the toy box on the other side of the room. She just wanted to forget.

* * *

"Hey, babe," Troy greeted her later that day outside of her Marine Bio class. "How was class?"

Mia frowned at him and sighed. Clearly, the silent treatment wasn't working. Time to try a new approach. "Fine," she said, ducking out of the way of his arm when he tried to put it around her.

Troy smirked and followed her down the hallway. "Cool, cool," he said, nodding. "Is it okay if I walk you to lunch?"

"Actually," Mia said, "I was just on my way to my locker." She pointed down the hall to where her locker was.

"Alright," Troy said. "I'll just carry your books then." He snatched the books out of her hand, and walked ahead of her.

"Troy –" Mia cried out, hobbling after him.

Troy spun around and pressed his hand over her mouth. "Hey, just chill out, would you?" he asked her with a pleading smile. "People are starting to stare."

Mia reached up and shoved his hand away from her. She stared after him as he turned and continued down the hall. "What the hell is wrong with you?" she spat at him. "I've tried being polite, but walking me to school, carrying my books – what is with you? You were never this devoted when we were a couple!" They reached her locker and she threw the crutches against it with a resounding bang.

"What are you talking about?" Troy asked her, laughing in disbelief. "I know we're in a weird place right now, but we're still a couple. That's why I'm trying to make things better between us, Mia. I mean, that is what you wanted, right?" He threw her books in the locker.

"You know what," Mia said, grabbing the books for the rest of her classes. "A year ago, I probably would have loved it, but there is such a thing as trying too hard..." Her voice trailed off as realization dawned on her. She looked up at him and asked in a stunned whisper, "Do you like me being this way?"

Troy stared at her cluelessly. "What way?"

Mia stared at him, uncertainly. There was no way he'd ever actually tell her. Not if he was doing what she thought was doing. "Nothing," she said, closing her locker and turning away from him. "I don't think I'm going to eat lunch today," she added, quickly inventing an excuse. "I need to go to the library. I have an essay to write."

"That's cool," Troy smiled at her. "Text me when you're done. I'll walk you to class." He leaned forward and kissed her on the cheek before she could duck out of the way.

Mia watched him disappear down the hallway into the cafeteria and for the first time since that morning, she allowed her thoughts to drift back to the phone. Right now, she would give anything to know that thing was the least of her worries.

* * *

Mia stood at the sink in the cramped kitchen of her tiny apartment, washing the dinner dishes silently. From where she stood, she could see Clara in the living room coloring with her crayons with the phone clenched tightly in her free hand. She turned her gaze back to the murky dish water and finished rinsing out a cup. She felt strange. Her mind was filled with panic, but it was much duller than the usual panic she felt these days. After their talk in the hall at school, she hadn't seen Troy again all day. He hadn't called her or texted her at all, either. But she was being silly, right? He had probably just thought about what she had decided and decided to move on. He had finally learned when to give up.

She probably should have been happy that he was finally leaving her alone, Mia thought, rinsing a pasta strainer. Maybe now she could finally focus on the things that were really important. Like forgetting.

"Hello? Hey, hello, who is this?"

Mia looked up at the sound an unfamiliar boy's voice, but there wasn't anyone else in the room. It was just her and Clara. "Clara –" she cried out when she saw the phone, glowing with life in her hand.

Mia felt all of the color drain from her face and she immediately connected the dots. Clara had called someone. Using the weird turtle phone. On speaker. What if she had -_?_

"Who is this?" the voice on the other end said. "How did you get this number?!" He was starting to sound irritated.

"Omg, omg, omg," Mia said, grabbing her crutches from off the table. She half-ran out of the kitchen. "Clara, what did you –?" Then she cried out loudly as she found herself suddenly on the floor. She had tripped over the stupid crayons.

Clara stared at her silently, looking unsure of what to do.

Then, suddenly, Mia heard the muffled sounds of movement on the other end of the phone. Then she heard a second more familiar voice. "Hello, this isn't Mia, is it?" he said. "Mia – ?"

Yep, she had.

Mia launched herself across the living room and snatched the phone out of Clara's hand. Then she pushed the End button as hard as she possibly could, cutting him off and ending the call.

A/N: First of all, I just wanted to give a quick shout out to everyone who took the time to read and review this fic. Thank you, guys, so much. Your support means so much to me. Without you, this chapter would never have been posted.  
Second of all, I decided to throw Casey into the fic simply because I just couldn't bring myself to break canon. Leaving him out would have made this fic feel way too AU. However, we probably won't be seeing him very much because he's not really around that much, I think, in the show and because, honestly, him and Raphael just don't seem super close to me. They just seem like okay-ish friends that want to punch each other. Not best buds.  
Anyway, please feel free to comment on that and, of course, the fic itself via a review or PM to me.  
Thanks, guys! R&amp;R!


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own TMNT.

04

"Son of a –!" Raphael growled, punching the End button on Michelangelo's phone. He threw it back to him. Then he spun and punched the wall hard. "She's still not answering!" There was more panic than anger in his voice, and he didn't know how to hide it. He couldn't focus on that right now. Not with the noise inside his head and the ringing of the phone, making him feel like his head was about to explode.

"Just chill, Raph," Leonardo said, putting his hand on his shoulder. "We don't even know if it was her that called. It was probably just a wrong number or something. It happens."

Donatello looked up at them from his computer. "On an unlisted, encrypted line that only we have access to?" he said, not bothering to hide his skepticism. "Not likely."

"Would you just hurry up and find her!" Raphael shot at him.

Donnie started typing hurriedly on his computer. "I'm trying," he said. "It's not exactly easy, trying to triangulate a cellphone signal in New York City. These things take time."

"All I'm saying is, there's no reason to freak out," Leo said, crossing him arms. "It's only been about two minutes. I'm sure she'll call or something –"

"Yeah, _if_," Raphael said, pulling out of his grip. "If she's okay." He wasn't sure what was wrong with him. Panic had flooded his chest the instant he had heard Donnie's phone ring, and dread flooded his stomach. He knew it was her. He just knew it, and two minutes was a _long_ time. It was long enough to get shot or to get beat into a bloody pulp. A lot of damage could be done in two minutes.

Why didn't anyone else seem to realize that?

"Raph," Donnie said a minute later. "I think I've got a lock on her location."

"Finally!" Raph said. He jumped over the chem table in the middle of the room, and ran over to Donnie's desk, peering over his shoulder. His eyes narrowed when he saw the spot on the map. "This is right near where we found her the first time."

"Found who?"

Raph looked up to see Splinter standing in the door of the lab, looking at each of them expectantly and the room fell silent. "Master Splinter," he began pleadingly, and the screaming in his head grew even louder because he knew it was pointless to even ask. "Please, please, try to understand. It's the girl I saved from the Dragons – I think she's in trouble. I just have to go make sure she's alright."

Splinter sighed and shook his head. "What, _exactly_, did you tell this girl, Raphael?" he asked exasperated.

Raphael frowned at him uncertainly. "I-I told her to call if she ever needed anything. I told her that we would protect her – that I would, I mean."

Splinter looked down at him, stern-faced and said, "Then you must keep your word."

Raphael gaped at Splinter silently for a split second. Then he took off running out of the lair without another word.

* * *

Mia sat on the floor of her living room and stared down at the phone that had been ringing non-stop for nearly five minutes. She held it tightly in her fist and gaped down at it. She couldn't believe this was happening. She was never supposed to hear from _him_ again, and definitely not because her mute little sister decided to make a prank phone call. But that had been his voice she had heard on the other end of the line. There was no mistaking it.

"Huh?" Mia looked down when she realized the phone had stopped ringing. She stared at it like it was a bomb just waiting to go off. But nothing happened. And that was good, right?

It meant that he had given up. He was done calling. He had probably left her a voice message that she would never retrieve because she didn't know the password, and wait for her to call him back. Which was _never_ going to happen, and that was good. Right?

"Eh!"

Mia looked up to see Clara standing over her with her hand outstretched expectantly. For a split second, Mia stared at her stunned because she had grunted and that was practically a word. Unless she was scared or pain, Clara never made any kind of noise much less anything bearing any resemblance to a word. Then she looked from Clara to the phone and back again, and realization dawned on her.

"No," Mia said, shaking her head frantically, angrily. "You think you can just make a sound and all is forgiven?" She grabbed her crutches off the floor and pushed herself to her feet. "It doesn't work like that, Clara. You're in a big trouble, and you are never touching this thing again." She shoved the phone in her pocket before Clara even had a chance to look disappointed. Then she grabbed her by the arm and led her to their room. "You're going to bed early tonight."

* * *

Thanks to all the shortcuts he had discovered on his solo runs, Raphael was now only one mile away from the address Donnie had given him. The closer he got, the louder her screams became inside his head. They were so loud, they blocked out the sounds of his heavy panting as he leapt from rooftop to rooftop, running so hard his chest hurt. But what really kept him going was what Leo had said back at the lab.

What if he was wrong – what if it hadn't been her?

Raphael landed on the roof of the Dandelion Bread Factory and lightning flashed, lighting up the sky. Thunder clapped directly overhead and he took off running harder than ever.

Because that was the point. If it hadn't been her, what if it had been a Purple Dragon or a Foot Soldier – or worst?

There was another clap of thunder and then Raphael skidded to a halt on the roof of a crumbling apartment building. He felt the first drops of freezing rain fall on him as he walked to the edge of the roof silently. Then he paused and knelt down, frowning. He had found it.

This was the place where Mia was.

* * *

Mia led Clara over to her bed and threw the blankets back. "Just go to bed," she said, and crossed the room to her own bed. She sat down on the bed and pressed her back against the wall. She dropped the crutches on the floor and ran her hands through her hair silently. She twined her fingers together, tying her hair up in knots and trying her best to breathe deeply.

She was losing it, she knew, and it was all because of her own stupidity. All of this was her fault. All of this had happened because she hadn't been watching Clara. If Janie found out about any of it, all hell was going to break loose. The neighbors would call the cops again, and the cops would call CPS again. And all of it would be Mia's fault just like always.

Then, suddenly, lightning flashed outside the window and the lights in the bedroom flickered off.

"What, seriously?" Mia said, grabbing her crutches and climbing out of bed. "Wait here," she added to Clara, who stared back at her from her own bed silently. Mia tried to keep her voice from shaking.

She walked to the doorway of the room and poked her head out, silently praying that it wasn't a power outage. But when she looked out into the kitchen and living room all she could see was darkness. The lights had gone out in those parts of the apartment, too.

"Oh, my god, no," Mia groaned and felt warm, angry tears stinging the corners of her eyes. This was too much. It was all too much. Everything had gone wrong tonight. Literally everything and she just couldn't deal with all of it.

She turned in the doorway to look back at Clara and then she froze when she saw him. He was standing on the fire escape just outside the bedroom window, drenched from the rain and scowling in at her. And Clara wasn't in bed – she was opening the window to let him in.

* * *

Fong stood silently the striped awning of the twenty-four-seven market just up the street. Part of his face was still bloody and swollen from his last encounter with the Turtles. He didn't care, though. He was here to work. Not to socialize.

Not that there was much for him to do. The cashier who worked at the store had already told him the girl the Turtles had saved that night – Mia Something, her name was – came here a lot. So now all Fong had left to do was watch, and this spot under the awning gave him a remarkable view of the girl's bedroom window.

Smiling, Fong pulled a cellphone out of his pocket and dialed the first number on speed dial. "You were right, Master," he said in a hushed whisper. "Contact has been made."

Then he hung up the phone and dropped it in the garbage can beside him before he started to walk away.

A/N: Hey, you guys, I'm sorry this chapter is so short and that it took me so long to write. I've been very busy recently, getting ready for the holidays and setting up a new aquarium, but I have a new chapter that's gonna get put up soon hopefully. I hope you guys are looking forward to it and as always, thanks for always reading and reviewing! -MJ


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own TMNT.

05:

Raphael stood silently on the fire escape, panting heavily and sopping wet from the rain. The window was streaked with rain and the whole building seemed to be completely dark. He couldn't see a damn thing that was inside of it. He was so confused. Was this an apartment building?

Then before he had time to think, the window in front of him was open and he was staring down at the little mousy-haired girl from Mia's Friendspace profile. The girl grinned up at him. Then she reached out and grabbed his hand, and hugged it to her chest.

Raphael stared down at her, frowning. She wasn't afraid of him at all – what a weird kid. Then he climbed over the window ledge and muttered quietly, "Thanks, kid."

He looked around the room silently. It was pitch black, but from what he could there were two beds, and the whole room seemed to be a mash-up of teenage girl and grade school princess. Then he spotted her, standing in the doorway and the screams inside his head vanished instantly.

Mia was staring at him. Gaping at him like he was a figment of her imagination, which she probably hoped he was. Her black hair fell to her shoulders in a disheveled curtain that hid part of her oval face from view, and her pale skin was offset was by the darkness. Her right leg was done up in a bright pink cast, and she was balancing herself with a pair of steel crutches.

Raphael straightened himself and felt his spine go rigid. He stared back at Mia silently, not knowing what to say or if he should say anything at all. He couldn't tell if she was afraid of him right now or if she was planning on using her crutches as a weapon. "Huh?"

He looked down to see that the mousy-haired girl had wrapped her arms around him and was beaming up at him.

Raphael frowned down at her.

_ What a weird freaking kid. _

"Clara!" Mia said somewhat breathlessly in a worried tone.

Within an instant, the girl released Raphael from her grasp and was on the other side of the room beside Mia.

Raphael looked up at Mia, frowning. "You are afraid?" He had meant it as a statement, but it came out as a question instead. He thought back to that night again. The look on her face when he came near her...

Mia's gaze snapped back to him and for a second, she looked like she might say something. Then she paused and looked away from him, down at the floor. She frowned and shook her head. "Y-you're real," she said in a hushed, choked whisper that was more timid than afraid. "I-I mean..." Her voice trailed off. Then she looked up at him and went on, "I mean, you're really here...Raphael?"

Raph froze at the sound of his name. He wasn't sure how, but it sounded different coming from her. Then he remembered why he was here and frowned. "Is this –?" he said, giving the room another quick once-over. Then he crossed the room and pushed past her into the hall. Like the room, he had just left the entire place was pitch black, but he could tell it was an apartment. He turned back to her. "You live here?"

Mia looked down at the floor again and nodded.

"Oh, my god," Raphael said, shaking his head in disbelief. "And you –" He gestured to Mia. "There's nothing wrong with you – you aren't in trouble. You're perfectly fine." He went back into the bedroom and sat down on the bed that was covered with a My Little Pony bed set. Then he looked back up at Mia, and said, "Why did you call me if you aren't in trouble – why didn't you call back to let me know you weren't in trouble?" He could hear the accusations and confusion in his voice, and he couldn't quite figure out how to disguise it. He had just come all the way over here and exposed himself to a human – two humans, actually – because he'd thought Mia was in trouble, being beaten to death by Purple Dragons or something. And she wasn't. She was freaking fine. Other than the cast, that is.

Leo was going to have field-day with this one when he found out.

Mia looked up at him. "I –" she started. Then she stopped and pointed to the girl, who was now sitting in the middle of the room, playing with her toys in the dark. "Clara is obsessed with you, alright, and she called you or whoever and it's my fault –"

Before he even knew what he was doing, Raphael was on his feet again and yelling at her, "And you couldn't call me back to tell me that?! I know it's not exactly an iPhone, but I thought you could have probably figured out the concept of Re-dial otherwise I wouldn't have given it to you." He gestured to Clara now. "Instead you make me come over here, thinking you're in danger because you let your – what, she's your sister, right – play with the stupid T-phone?!"

"Well, just take it then!" Mia screamed at him.

Then there was a small thud at his feet, and Raphael looked down to see the T-phone on the floor in front of him. He stared at it silently and an instant later there was a much louder crash, and he looked up to see Mia on the floor with her crutches strewn to the side and her legs sprawled out awkwardly.

Raphael stared at her.

He could feel Clara staring at him.

"Just take it," Mia said again. "I never asked for it..." Her voice trailed off.

And that was when Raphael realized she was crying.

Crap.

All of his anger and annoyance evaporated. He felt a twinge of guilt in his stomach and he grabbed the phone off the floor. Then he walked over to her and knelt down beside her. "You didn't have to ask for it," he reminded her. He reached out for her hand slowly, hesitantly, but she jerked away from him suddenly. "Okay," he said, frowning. "No touching. Got it."

Mia shook her head, frowning. "You keep it," she said, not looking up from the floor. "I really don't want it." Her voice was choked, but she was no longer sobbing.

"Too bad," Raphael said, dropping it into her lap. "I gave it to you. That makes it yours, Mia."

"You know my name?" Mia asked him.

"Yeah," Raphael said, frowning. "A friend of mine found you on Friendspace and showed me your profile."

Mia nodded silently.

Then Raph nodded and said, "I should probably get out of here before your parents get home or something, huh?" He crossed the room over to the window.

"Raphael?"

Raph paused with one leg in, one leg out of the window and looked back at Mia. "Yeah?"

She looked up at him with fresh tears in her eyes. "I'm so sorry," she said quietly. "You saved my life and I treated you horribly that night, and I know I did. I've thought about it before tonight. I wanted to apologize – I just didn't know how because I just didn't want you to be real, but now you are real and you're here. I didn't even thank you for that night –"

Raphael cut her off because she was starting to blubber. "You don't need to thank me," he said simply. "Th-that's not how this whole thing works." He was tripping over his own words in disbelief. He had never thought this would happen. She was apologizing to him. She wanted to thank him. None of this made sense. He shook his head again. Then he stepped out onto the fire escape and lightning lit up the sky once again. "Just keep in touch, okay?"

* * *

One hour later, the lights in the apartment finally flickered back into life and Mia sat silently on the floor of her bedroom stunned. Raphael had found her. He had come to her home. He had been inside in her bedroom on her bed.

Mia looked up at Clara, who was now playing dress up in their closet. She watched her silently, frowning. When Raphael had been, Clara had been happier than Mia had ever seen her. She had been friendly, open, and fearless – pretty much the exact opposite of Mia."You do realize you're going to have to completely forget that he was here, right?"

Clara dropped the princess crown she was holding and looked at her, frowning.

Mia frowned back. "Janie can't know that he was here, Clara," she explained. "You can't draw any weird pictures of him in our room or hanging out with you or me. Or do anything to make Janie think that someone else was here with us – all traces of Raphael need to be gone. Do you understand?"

Clara stared at her for a moment and then nodded.

Mia nodded silently, but she knew she didn't.

How was she was supposed to move on now?

* * *

Raphael lay on his bed silently, staring up at the ceiling of his room with AC/DC blaring from his stereo.

"Hey, Raph!"

Raph looked up to see Donatello and April standing over him. "Yeah?"

"New phone," Donnie said, dropping the gadget into his lap. Then he turned and left.

April didn't follow him.

Raphael frowned. This was happening way too much for his own liking. "You need something?"

"Are you going to talk to her?" April asked him.

Getting right to the point today, are we?

Raph didn't bother asking her which "her" she meant. He didn't know that many of them. "I don't really know if that's such a good idea."

April shrugged. "Well, maybe she thinks it's a good idea."

Raphael laughed humorlessly. "Yeah, right. Besides, don't you think she'd tell me if she actually thought that?"

"She probably would," April said, smirking, "if she actually had your number, so she could contact you."

Raphael sighed and propped himself up on his elbow to look at her square in the face. "Okay," he said. "I'm going to ask you this and I want you to answer me honestly. None of those weird, girly mind games you use on Donnie: Why do you care?" It came out meaner than he'd meant for it, but April's sudden interest in his social life was more than a little weird and was starting to get old. Fast.

"Seriously, Raph," April sighed, dropping the innocent act. "It's just because I'm your friend and I care about you. Plus, I've seen Mia around school and she looks absolutely miserable every time I see her. You guys both just seem like you need someone to talk to."

"Interesting," Raphael said, nodding as though he actually believed her. "But why I can't just talk to someone other than her?"

April crossed her arms and looked at him stonily. "Because, Raph, you don't talk to anyone. You shut out your brothers and I. You're afraid to talk to Splinter and Casey sucks with stuff like this, and Mia has a T-phone, so that makes her part of the club, right? So why _not _talk to her then? It's not like you have anything to lose, except your excuse for being a jerk all the time!" Then she stomped out of the room.

Raphael cringed. Then he frowned and fell over onto his pillow. It had been three days since the night he had seen Mia. He hadn't told any of the others what had happened that night. That Mia had been fine and nothing had been wrong at all. He'd only said that it was no big deal and he took care of it. No one asked any questions. Since that night, the screams inside his head had quieted a bit. He didn't hear them when he was awake. Only when he was asleep. And he was more than done trying to force himself to forget about her because the one thing that he absolutely could not get out of his head was her apology to him. The way she'd said it and the look on her face. It was like she was actually sorry. Like she actually cared about his feelings. Even though she hated him?

It just didn't make sense.

A strange idea occurred to him: What if she didn't hate him – not completely, anyway?

She hadn't seemed scared of him that night, exactly, even though she seemed afraid to _look_ at him. She _had _apologized. But she also screamed at him and broke down into a puddle of tears. He wasn't sure any of that constituted to a good time. So was there even a slither of a chance that Mia didn't completely hate his guts?

Raph picked up the phone Donnie had just given him and frowned at it.

* * *

Mia was in lunch when she got the text message and she jumped when she felt the T-phone – that was what he'd called it, right? – go off in her pocket. She carried it with her everywhere now, and Clara wasn't allowed anywhere near it. She wasn't sure why she'd kept it. She _really_ didn't want it anymore. She was tired of hearing it, looking at it, and constantly worrying about when it would go off next. She even thought about throwing the thing off her fire escape, but she thought back to that night that was never supposed to happen and she just couldn't bring herself to do it. She didn't know why. She just couldn't.

She took the phone out and frowned at it.

"Hey," Troy said, reaching out and snatching the phone from her. "Isn't this your sister's toy?" He looked up at her. "Why do you have it?"

Mia snatched it back from him, scowling. "I don't know. She must have been playing with my bag again." She grabbed her crutches off the table and got to her feet. "I need to go to the restroom," she invented quickly and was grateful when none of the other girls offered to come with her.

Mia left the cafeteria through the west exit – the one in the opposite direction of Troy's next class – and went inside the girls' room just off the hall. She went inside the first stall she saw, threw her crutches against the wall, and locked the door. She took the phone out again and began scrolling through the text messages again until she found the one that was labeled NEW. She clicked on it:

'this is raphael. New phone. New number. 555-7274.'

Mia frowned as she read it. The message was so simple. It was like something you'd send to a friend. Was she supposed to respond, and if so then how? What was she supposed to write?

She sat down on the toilet and stared down at the phone. Raphael was real. She was done pretending that he wasn't. That had sailed when she'd collapsed on her bedroom floor and told him what a horrible person she was. Did this one little text message mean that they were friends – would they be friends if she responded?

Mia bit her lip and silently typed out the most simple, neutral message she could think of. 'K.'

A/N: I was thinking of doing a holiday special, but I decided to do this instead. I hope you guys liked it. I f so, then please feel free to leave a review. Happy Holidays! ^_^


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own TMNT.

06

Raphael sat silently in the pit, staring down at his phone. He couldn't believe it. She had actually texted him back. But all she had said was, "K."

As in okay.

What the hell did that mean, though – was Mia gonna try to contact him? Was it okay for him to call her? Was ever he gonna hear from her again? Or maybe it was only okay if he texted her?

"Hey, bro."

Raphael closed out of his text messages and looked up to see Michelangelo, sitting down across from him with a plate of pizza in hand. "Hey," he said simply.

Mikey nodded at him halfheartedly as he grabbed the remote to the TV and began switching the through the static for cartoons. Then he looked back at Raph. "So," he said. "What're you up to?"

"Nothing," Raph said a bit too quickly. Then he looked back down and remembered the T-phone that was clenched tightly in his fist. He loosened his grip on it. "Nothing," he said again. "Just messing around online."

Mikey nodded silently.

Raph leaned back and fell into the throw pillows silently. He stared at Mikey silently. After a minute or two, he knew he was safe. Mikey was watching _My Little Pony_. He was completely sucked into it – nothing was gonna break him now. But Mikey was easy like that, and Raph knew that he wasn't the one he really needed to watch out for.

Raph peeked his head over the top of the bench. Donnie was hanging out with April in the lab. He was more than occupied. Leo was nowhere to be seen, though. He was probably off somewhere sucking up to Master Splinter, Raph thought as he opened up the text message on his phone again. He wasn't sure what exactly Mia was trying to play at – if she was being friendly or if this was her way of telling him to get lost, but he couldn't ignore her. She didn't hate him, he reminded himself. Even if she didn't like him or want to be friends with him, he already knew Mia didn't hate him because of the last time he'd seen her. Knowing that, Raph just couldn't bring himself to just completely ignore her. He wasn't that kind of person.

He wasn't that much of a coward.

So, silently, he typed out a simple one word response and hit the SEND button on the phone. "Cool." Then he shoved it beneath the throw pillows for safekeeping.

* * *

Mia sat the dinner table, gaping at her sister. A week had passed since the last time she had texted Raphael. In that time, she had gotten her cast off and had started walking again. And ignoring Raphael. She wasn't pretending that he didn't exist. No, that was too hard to do. She simply didn't know what to say or how to say it. So, instead, she said nothing. "A job?" she repeated, stabbing a piece of macaroni with her fork. "I just got my cast off, and you want me to –?" She was cut off by the sound of someone pounding on the front door.

Clara stared at the two of them, looking from one to the other and back again. The pounding continued.

Janie turned to look at the door. "Who is that?" She turned back to Mia. "Did you invite Troy?" She didn't wait for answer before she got up from the table.

Mia laughed bitterly. "He invites himself," she said in a hushed whisper.

Janie opened the door and Mia felt her spine go rigid as cold flooded her stomach. The woman standing in the door was tall and pale. She had long, fine, dirty blond hair and sunken, blue, eyes with dark bags etched beneath them, jagged cheekbones that would have been attractive on someone else, and a cleft in her chin. It was their mother.

Before Mia even had time to process what was happening, Clara was up from the table and in Karina's arms, squealing happily. She barely even knew her, but somehow she was still aware of the connection between them. The bond that was supposed to be there.

"Oh, my girls," Karina said, kissing Janie on the forehead as she moved past her. She hugged Clara closed to her, and kissed her all over her face. "Oh, my girls," she said again, sitting on the sagging couch in the living room. "How are you all?"

"We're good, Mom," Janie said, smiling at her. "We're all good. It's so good to –"

"What are you doing here?" Mia cut her off, scowling. She got up and started clearing the dishes off the table. "If you're here for money, we don't have any."

"Mia!" Janie gasped in angry disbelief.

Mia ignored her. She picked up one plate, two plates, three plates, waiting for an answer.

"I came because I heard you were hurt," Karina said, still hugging Clara. She reached into her bag and pulled out a cigarette.

Mia threw the plates into the sink with a loud crash. "Really?" she spun around to face her mother and the others. She could feel both of her sisters scowling at her. "Well, you're a little late – oh, but if you want to hear some good news Clara is in therapy now because you left –!"

As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Mia felt something harsh and warm collide with her face. She fell backwards, dropping the fistful of silverware she'd been holding onto, and hit her head against the plaster counter tops. When she looked up, Janie was standing over her. "Don't you dare talk to her that way!" her sister spat at her.

Mia stared at her, shocked. "Are you freaking kidding me?" she said, starting to get to her feet. "After everything she's done!"

Janie slapped her again. Harder this time. Hard enough that Mia bit her tongue and could taste iron in her scowled at her silently, her breathing heavy.

Clara was silent again.

Mia looked at her older sister in hurt, angry, disbelief. She knew that things had been bad between them, but did they actually know so little about each other? Mia had thought for sure that this – the woman had abandoned Clara – was the one thing they'd be on the same page about.

Or was Janie only acting this way to spite Mia?

Mia pushed past her and grabbed her bag off the couch. Then she left slamming the door behind her. No one called after her.

Once Mia was outside, panic began to set in. Her mother was in her house. The woman who had abandoned her and her younger sister was inside her apartment, acting like she lived there. And Mia was outside with nowhere to go in the area where she'd gotten jumped less than a month ago.

"What I am gonna do?" she said to nobody in particular, pacing up and down the sidewalk. "What am I gonna do?" She asked again and again.

Then at the end of the street, a bus pulled up at the corner store. Mia stared at it. It was almost ten O'clock at night. She didn't even know the buses ran this late. Then just as it started to pull away from the curb, Mia ran as hard as she could across the street and inside the bus.

The driver scowled at her as she searched her pockets for loose change and dropped whatever she had inside the coin-slot. "Take a seat," the driver instructed her.

Mia nodded, panting slightly and turned to look for a seat. The bus was empty. She ran to the back of it and collapsed in the very last seat. The bus drew away from her neighborhood and five minutes later, passed Troy's apartment building. Mia wasn't panicking as much as anymore. No one was going to get her on the bus, but she still couldn't believe what had happened back in the apartment.

Her mom was there. Her actual, real life mom, who she hadn't seen since she was eleven years old. The one who had left her to be raised by that monster she called a husband. And she had the nerve to say she had come because she was worried about Mia!

Tears filled her eyes as she realized with a mixture of fear and desperation that she didn't have a choice. She needed Raphael right now.

Sobbing, Mia pulled out the T-phone and dialed Raphael's number silently.

Raphael answered on the second ring. "Hello?" he said. "Hello, Mia – this better not be your sister, messing around again!"

Mia pressed the phone against her ear. "Hey," she managed to choke out. "Raphael?"

"Mia," Raphael said. He sounded pleased. "It is you. What's going on?" Suddenly, he sounded angry. Deadly, even. "You aren't in trouble, are you – what's happening?"

"I-I can't go back home," Mia told him. "I left. I can't go back – please, don't make me go back there, Raphael!" She was sobbing into the phone now.

There was a moment of silence. "Where are you?" Raphael finally asked. "I can come get you."

Mia froze. She wasn't sure if she was ready to see him again. "Why would – ?"

Raphael cut her off. "That's why you called, ain't it?" he demanded, sounding somewhat annoyed. "Now, tell me where you, so I can come get you."

Mia nodded as though he could see her. "I'm on a bus."

"In the city, right?" Raph asked. "Where's it going?"

"I-I..." Mia voice faltered as she suddenly realized that she had no idea where the bus was heading. "I don't know," she admitted to him. Then she started sobbing again.

Raphael sighed. "Alright. Okay," he said. "Get off at the next stop, and wait for me there."

* * *

Half an hour later, Raphael found Mia curled up on a bench on a deserted street off of Broadway. She was using her bag as a pillow, and she wasn't wearing a coat or shoes, despite the fact it was the first of December and snowing. She didn't look up at him. Instead she just stared off at the buildings across the street, and he could tell by how bloodshot her eyes were that she'd been crying.

But her cast was off, so at least there was some good news.

"Damn it," he muttered, walking over and sitting down beside her.

She didn't look at him. She just curled further away from him.

Raphael sighed. There was going to be hell to pay if he had bring her back down to the lair. "Do you want to talk about it?" he asked her, hoping he could convince her to go back.

This time Mia looked up at him, and that was when he noticed the fat lip and the thin, trickle of blood that ran from her mouth to her chin.

"Oh, damn." Raphael resisted the urge to reach out and examine her. He comprised by moving an inch closer to see what had happened. "Damn, Mia, what happened?"

Mia shook her head. "It's nothing," she said. "My sister – "

Raph cut her off. "Your sister?" he asked in disbelief. "Clara – the little, weirdo one?"

Mia grimaced and looked almost amused. "No." She shook her head. "My older sister, Janie. She hit me 'cause I back-mouthed my mom."

Raphael stared at her in disbelief. "Wait, what?" he said after a minute or two of processing. "Isn't that sort of an overreaction – and what did your mom do to make you mad, anyway?"

At this Mia started sobbing again. She pulled her bag back into her lap, and used it to wipe the tears from her eyes. "She's a really bad mom, Raphael," she half-whispered to him.

Raphael stared at her, defeated. Without even knowing the whole story, he knew he couldn't send her back there. Not right anyway. Maybe a day or two would be okay. Maybe he could reason with Splinter, and try to make it okay. Try to explain. He'd understand.

Leo was never going to let him leave this one down, though.

Neither was Donnie.

Or Mikey.

This did answer one question, though, Raphael thought as he got to his feet silently. If Mia trusted him enough to call him for help, and to tell him what had gone down with her and her family, she definitely didn't hate him. He yanked Mia's bag from her. He flung it over his shoulder before she could respond, and held his hand out to her. "You're coming home with me," he said simply.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I do not own TMNT

07

Raphael dragged Mia down the street to the nearest manhole cover silently. The skin of her palm felt both clammy and cold, and yet somehow it was burning with warmth. She'd let him touch her. She didn't even cringe. That was good, right – it meant she wasn't afraid of him, right? Did it mean they were friends?

Raph threw Mia's bag on the ground, and pulled aside the manhole cover. Mia stared at him as though he were insane when he grabbed her bag and started down the ladder that led to the darkness below. "You live in a sewer?" she sniffed at him in disbelief.

Raphael grimaced up at her. "Where else would you expect a monster to live?" he asked her, half-jokingly. He wanted to make her laugh if only to stop her crying for more than a seconds.

But she didn't laugh. She frowned down at him with tears, streaming down her cheeks and said quietly to him in a matter-of-factly voice, "You're not a monster, Raphael."

* * *

"Look, Master Splinter," Raphael said pleadingly to his master, who stood frowning at him apathetically. Waiting to hear the reason why a young, human girl that wasn't named April O'Neil was sitting in the pit, crying and shivering. And Raph knew it had better be a damn good one, too. "She left home because her sister was beating on her after their mom came around. I don't really know what the deal is with the mom – I guess she's, like, abusive or something. But Mia didn't have anywhere else to go, and I offered to bring her down here cause I didn't want to put her back in that situation again." He sighed, casting a glance over at Mia who was using her backpack as a shield, guarding herself against his brothers. Then he turned back to Splinter and added, "It'd only be for a day or two. Just until her sister's all chilled out, that's all. Just for the weekend. Please?"

Splinter shook his head and sighed. "Raphael, this girl is a stranger to our world. How do we know we can trust her with our secrets?"

Raphael frowned. "She hasn't blabbed yet."

And if she did, who would believe her?

Splinter looked down at him. "There are many things you have yet to understand, Raphael," he told him. "If this girl were to become the target of our foes –"

Raphael cut him off. "Isn't that even more of a reason for her to stay?!" he demanded suddenly defensive. He gestured to Mia. "What are you saying – you want to send her out there by herself with the Purple Dragons out there?!" He scowled up at his master.

Splinter stared down at him for a moment. Then he smiled, "You have learned well, my son. Your friend may stay until she is ready to return home." He turned and started to walk away. Then he looked over his shoulder and added sternly, "Which had better be by the end of this weekend."

"Oh, uh, _hai_," Raphael said, bowing after him quickly. All traces of anger were gone from his voice now. _"Hai. Sensei, arigatogozaimashita._" He watched his master go silently.

"Hey, uh, Raph?"

Raphael looked over his shoulder to see Michelangelo and Donatello standing behind him, frowning. "Yeah?" he asked them. "What's up?"

"Well," Mikey said, "I hate to be a downer, but your new girlfriend Mina –"

"Her name is Mia," Raphael corrected him, scowling, ignoring the girlfriend comment. He slammed his hand into the pillar directly behind Mikey, pinning him. "What's wrong with her – what did you guys do?" He looked from one brother to another expectantly.

"Chill out, Raph," Donnie said, knocking Raph's hand away from their youngest brother. "We didn't do anything to her. It's just that we can't figure out how to make her calm down –"

Mikey cut him off, waving his hands excitedly. "She doesn't want pizza, she won't laugh at my jokes – all she does is sit there and cry. This chick's a total downer, man!"

"Well, thank you, Dr. Mikey," Raphael said, rolling his eyes at them. He started to leave. "You guys are unbelievable. You're supposed to be ninja, and you completely freaking out over a girl crying."

"Actually, I texted April and she'll be here to try and talk to her any minute now," Donatello informed him, following after him with Mikey close behind. "But since she was so upset, we figured she might want to be alone, so Leo took her back to your room –"

"He what?!" Raphael shot, spinning around to face his brothers. "And you guys didn't try to stop him?!"

Donnie frowned at him as Michelangelo ducked behind him, using him as a shield. "Well, I said it probably wasn't a great idea, but Leo said that since she was _your_ guest she could hang out in _your_ room if she wanted to be alone, a-and it's like we said. Nothing we were doing was helping any, so..." His voice trailed off.

Raphael shoved the two of them out of his way, causing them to fall to the ground as he took off running towards his room. "Man, you guys are useless!" he snarled at them.

* * *

Mia sat in the semi-darkness of Raphael's bedroom, sniffing quietly and wiping tears out of her eyes. The room was bathed in the colors black and red. Rock-and-roll posters covered all the walls, and a small stereo from the late 90s made by a company that no longer existed stood on the saddest example of an entertainment center she had ever seen. For a moment, she forgot about her mom being back in her apartment and was suddenly glad she had an apartment at all.

Mia looked up as the door to the room swung open and jumped to her feet when she saw Raphael standing in the doorway.

"No, no, no, no," Raphael said quickly, gesturing in protest. "No, it's fine. You can sit there. It's fine. You like music, right?" He went over to his stereo and grabbed a pile of CDs Donnie had made for him on various occasions. He tossed them on the bed beside Mia. "There – pick something out."

Mia sat down silently, slowly and set her bag down on the floor. She handed him a CD without looking at it. She never looked up at him.

Raphael took the CD from her and stared at her. She didn't look angry or even upset anymore. Her expression was completely blank. "So, look," he said, putting the disk in the stereo after a long moment of silence. "I know this must all be weird for you –"

"It's not weird," Mia said, looking up at him. "You're only trying to help. That's why I'm here, and I really appreciate that, Raphael." She smiled sadly at him before she buried her face in her hands, and started sobbing again. "I'm just really worried about my little sister. She hasn't seen our mom in years, Raphael, and I have no idea what this is going to do to her." She looked up at him again. "And Janie isn't even thinking about that. It's, like, she doesn't give a damn about what happens to Clara!"

Raphael stared at her, frowning. "And why are you supposed to stay with her?" he asked her. "I mean, your older sister doesn't really sound like a loving guardian, so why do you bother sticking around? Can't you go live with your dad or something?"

Mia shook her head. "My dad's in prison," she said. "He's the reason my sisters and I are so messed up, Raphael." She looked down at her hands and began examining her fingertips. "He did something so horrible to my sisters, I can't even tell you what it is. Janie hates me because he treated me differently from them. He said he had no interest in me because I looked too much like him –"

"We're done talking about this." Raphael stared down at his hands, scowling, that were now wrapped tightly around his sai. A thin red stream ran the length of his palm. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. How the hell did one person end up going through so much garbage in their life? "You're not anywhere near any of them right now. So just stop worrying, okay?" His voice was shaking with the effort he using not throw something. He thought back to the moment at the manhole cover. When she said he wasn't a monster. He never wanted her to think of him as one again. He knew couldn't have one of his outbursts in front of her. Not right now. It would only make things worse.

She'd be afraid of him again.

Before Mia had a chance to respond, Raphael grabbed the remote to his stereo and flipped the CD player on. He threw the remote across the room where it collided with the wall and smashed into tiny pieces. He couldn't help it. He just wanted to destroy something. He'd have to have Donnie build another. Then he stormed out of the room and went to go train.

* * *

Raphael woke up the next morning with a ringing in his ears, and looked up to see Mia asleep on the bench right in front of him. He didn't remember much after his last conversation with her. He just remembered attacking the punching bag over and over and over again. He'd lost control again.

"Hey, Raph!"

Raphael got to his feet, and saw his brothers and April all huddled around a box of pizza at the kitchen island. "What's with her?" he said, walking over to them. He nodded at Mia. "I thought she was staying in my room?"

"Guess she just couldn't stand to be away from her, Raphy-poo," Michelangelo cooed at him, giggling.

"Shut up, Mikey," April said, looking like she was trying not to smile.

Raphael reached across the table and yanked Mikey's pepperoni pizza away from him. He sat down on a stool, and looked up at April. "Did you talk to her?"

"Hey!" Michelangelo protested.

April shook her head, ignoring Mikey's outburst. "Nuh-uh. When I got here, she was in your room, yelling at someone on the phone. She seemed really upset, so I kinda figured it might be best if I just stayed out of it."

Raph took a bite of pizza and shook his head. "Unbelievable," he muttered. "So much for not worrying."

Just then a loud, high-pitched, trilling filled the air, and they all turned to see Mia jump up from the couch. She stood tussle haired and clueless for a moment. Then she grabbed her bag off the floor, and pulled a regular cellphone out of it. "Omg!" she cried, examining the screen. "Just shut up already!" She threw the back into her bag.

Raphael looked back at April. "Yelling like that?" he asked her.

"Yeah, just like that," April sighed, nodding.

"Awesome," Raphael said, throwing his half-eaten pizza back in the box and getting to his feet. He walked over to where Mia was. "Hey, who was that?" he asked her as she rifled through her bag, and pulled out a hair brush. "On the phone?"

"Just some idiot from my school," Mia said, dragging the brush through her hair.

Raphael stared at her as the others wandered over with their pizza in hand. Her eyes were red and puffy, and her fat lip had gone down overnight. She was scowling and looked like she might throw something, but she seemed fine otherwise. Or, at least, she wasn't sobbing into her book bag, which was progress.

"Is that who you were arguing with last night, too?" April asked her. "I was on my way to come talk to you, and overheard," she added quickly, smiling when she saw the expression on her face. "I'm April, by the way."

Mia jumped at the sound of April's voice. She looked up at her, taking in the lanky redhead's appearance. Then her eyes fell on the others. Her eyes traveled over each of Raphael's brothers slowly, methodically like she was memorizing something important. Raph had introduced Mia to them the night before, but she'd been so upset he wasn't sure how much she of the info she had actually taken in. "Yeah," Mia said, turning back to April."Yeah. He won't stop calling me."

Raphael felt some of the tension in the room evaporate. This was good. If she was talking to April, then maybe she wouldn't mind talking to the others.

As if on cue Leonardo asked Mia, "Why is he calling you so much then if he knows you don't want to talk to him?"

"Yeah, who is this guy?" Raphael added. "Is he like a boyfriend or something?" He surprised himself with the amount of venom in his voice when he said those words. He wandered across the pit and sat down as from Mia as he could get while still being part of the conversation.

Mia sat silently staring at her fingertips for a moment before she finally looked up at Raphael and sighed heavily. "Sort of. I mean, I told him I don't want to be with him, but he won't leave me alone. He keeps calling me and coming to my house. He even follows me around school, keeping tabs on me –"

"And your sister knows about this?" Raphael shot at her. The more he heard about Mia's home life, the more he felt like throwing something. "Why the hell doesn't she do anything to stop him?"

Donnie nodded. "Yeah, this doesn't exactly sound like the epitome of a healthy relationship. Not that I'd know," he added quickly when he saw the look on April's face.

"Dude sounds like a total creeper," Michelangelo agreed. "Like in this horror movie I watched where the villain was completely obsessed with this girl until he followed her home one night with a giant knife and went after her husband and –" He was cut off by the throw pillow that hit him square in the face.

"Would you shut up?" Raphael spat at him, scowling. "You're gonna totally freak her out."

Leonardo smiled apologetically at Mia. "Mikey has no filter," he explained.

"Right," Mia said, looking only slightly terrified. "Anyway," she went on, "Janie is the one that keeps inviting him over and asking him to walk me to school. She thinks he's, like, perfect even though he drinks and smokes and is just a horrible, immature person –"

"Does she _know _he does all that stuff?" Raphael asked, cutting her off. He clenched and unclenched his fists silently around the throw pillow nearest to him in case he needed to throw another one. "I mean, you'd think after everything you told me – "

Mia cut him off this time. "I freaking know, right?" she said, sounding just as outraged as he felt. "You'd think she would more worried about how someone like him might influence Clara, but she just doesn't care. It's like she's hoping that he'll get me hooked marijuana or whatever again, so I'll get sent to a freaking group home!" She ran her hands through her hair, and tossed her brush in her bag angrily.

Raphael stared at her silently his anger suddenly replaced by a sense of shocked disbelief. The word "again" echoed inside his head. It wasn't the sort of thing he'd expected to ever hear from Mia. She just didn't seem the type to be wrapped up in that sort of stuff. Then again, he hadn't expected her family to sound like something out of a bad Lifetime drama, either.

Or for her to ever trust him. To say he _wasn't_ a monster.

"Who is Clara?" Michelangelo asked suddenly, pulling him of his reverie and breaking the silence that had fallen over them.

A/N: Hey, guys, I hope you're enjoying the chapters I've been putting up. I'm sorry it took me so long to update. I'm not gonna lie. I encountered some bullying online, and it really took a toll on my confidence as a writer cause of my social anxiety. Then my depression just took over from there. I'm doing better now, though, and I've learned to be less sensitive to that sort of thing, and I'm updating again. Yay!  
Anyway, I hope you guys love the chapters. I'll have the next one up soon. Please, R&amp;R, guys! :)


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I do not own TMNT.

08

Having Mia around the lair was sort of like having a cat, Raphael thought later that afternoon. She didn't talk much to anyone. Not even to April. She just sat there, watching, not talking. Sometimes she was reading or checking her cellphone. But by the end of the day, she had disappeared without a word to anyone.

"What the heck do you think you're doing?" Raphael said when he pushed open the door to his room twenty minutes later to find Mia on the floor, surrounded by a pile of textbooks.

She frowned at him. "Homework?"

Raphael crossed his arms, scowling. "And you couldn't have me told that, why – before you just up and vanished, I mean?"

"I just thought you could figure out where I was," Mia told him. "Besides, this is where Leo told me –"

"So you're just gonna do whatever he tells you to do then?" Cause that was exactly what they all needed – someone else that just lived to hear Leo's every command.

Mia shook her head. "I just need to get this done, and it's easier to do if I'm alone."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Raphael said, walking past her and throwing himself down on his bed. "I get it. Just lemme know next time, so I don't have to search the whole damn lair for you, got it?"

"Yeah," Mia smiled at him. "Alright."

Why the heck was she smiling?

Raphael stared at her for a minute before he rolled over onto his back to stare at the ceiling. "So how long you been in here anyway?" he asked her. "Working on that?"

She shrugged as she turned back to her books. "Like an hour or two?"

"Why not just do it at home?"

"This is really the only time I have," Mia said. She didn't look up at him. She just kept to her books, writing as fast as she could. "I mean, at home between taking care of Clara and keeping up with chores, I don't really have much free time. And now Janie is wanting me to get a job."

Raphael rolled over to look at her. "How the heck are you supposed to getting anything done then?" he snapped at her is disbelief. "And what about your free time – when do you ever hang out with your friends?"

Mia paused and he saw her spine go rigid. "I don't really have friends, Raphael," she said quietly. "I just really don't have time for them..." Her voice trailed off into silence.

Raph stared at her for a minute or two before he jumped to his feet. "That's it," he said. "I can't stand listening to this anymore." He bent down and began throwing Mia's books back inside her bag.

"What are you doing?" Mia asked, snatching her history book from him.

Raph snatched the book back from her. "Remember what I said last night – no more worrying?" he reminded her. "What the heck do you this?" He didn't wait for her to answer. "You worrying about school and time and whatever else is going on up there." He jabbed her sharply in the head with his forefinger. "So we're leaving."

"And going where, exactly?" Mia demanded, scowling at him.

"Just lemme worry about that," Raphael said, even though he had no clue where they were going.

* * *

They ended up walking through the sewers for a long time until they finally came to a spot beneath a sewer grate where there were no tall buildings and the sky was clear enough that Raphael could just make out a sliver of the moon. It was weird being really alone with Mia in his world below the surface. She didn't say anything about the smell or where they were, even though Raph was sure she must have wanted to. But something seemed different about her now that she had been down to the lair. Now that she trusted him. She wasn't afraid of him, but she didn't pretend to understand, either. She was weirded out by his brothers – but who wouldn't be? – and she was still nice to them. When she wasn't avoiding them.

"Why do you live down here?"

Raphael looked up at Mia. She was sitting on the curb of the aisle, staring down at the muddy water at her feet. "Don't really have much choice," he said. "Too much of a monster to live up there."

"You're not a monster, though," Mia told him reassuringly. "I've seen monsters."

He didn't need to ask her to explain. Instead his thoughts went back to the night before. She'd said the same thing then. He liked going back to that moment, for some reason. Maybe he just liked hearing her say it. Then his thoughts trailed off to the night she was attacked. Her screams and her words to him. "You keep saying that," he said quietly, "but you scared, too."

Mia looked away from him. She stayed silent for a long moment. Then she said, "I didn't know what was happening. I thought I was going insane. I thought Clara was." She looked up at him, frowning. "I still don't understand. I mean, the only thing I know for sure is that you're real."

Raph looked at her. Did that make her feel better – is that why she was so nice all of sudden? Because his existence meant she wasn't insane?

Mia shook her head and let out a low, shuddering breath. "That night," she went on. "That night you saved me and –"

"Please, don't bring that up again," Raphael said firmly. He had only just started to forget about it – the screams, the gunshot, the nightmares – a little while ago. After he'd visited Mia back in her apartment. Ever since then, it had all been gone. Mostly.

"But you – " Mia started to say.

And Raph cut her off again. "I didn't mean to, alright?"

Mia stared at him and then nodded silently.

Raphael got to his feet and sighed, "We should get out of here before the others to start to wonder where we were." Not that they hadn't already. When this whole thing was over, they were never gonna shut up. He started to walk away, and then he paused, looking over his shoulder, when he realized that Mia wasn't following him. "What is it?"

She was staring back at the water again, her expression blank. "I'm still trying to understand, Raphael," she said. "Before I was too freaked to think of it, but these past few days..." She looked up at him. "Do you know why I was attacked that night?"

Raphael turned to look at her. "You saw something you weren't supposed to see," he told her. "It was just bad timing, that's all."

She looked up at him, her eyes wide. "And that thing – that green thing?" she asked. "Why wasn't I supposed to see it?"

Raph looked away from her. "It's called mutagen, and it's dangerous. A lot of bad people are trying to get their hands on it for really bad reasons." He smiled to himself. This meant his secret was out.

She could figure it out no problem. She wasn't stupid.

"Like I said," Raphael went on. "We should get going."

Mia nodded and started to get to her feet. But as she stood up, she tripped over her feet and fell down hard, splashing murky water everywhere and cried out loudly.

"You okay?" Raphael asked, rushing over to her. She seemed fine except for the fact that she was covered in sewer water. "Damn it, you've got to watch where you're going."

Mia scowled at him. "That's kind of hard to do in a sewer!"

"Yeah, yeah," Raphael said, smirking. "Just get up and let's go." He reached down and offered his hand to her.

"Whatever," Mia snarled, taking his hand.

Then as he pulled her to feet, Raphael felt it. A small tingle of something hot and fiery. A burst of fire that ran from her fingers to his.

He pulled away from her, and stood silently staring down at his hand while she wandered ahead of him. "What the hell?" he muttered quietly. Then he looked up at her, turning the bend at the end of the tunnel, and it hit him. It hit him like a ton of freaking bricks. "Damn it. God-freaking-damn it!"

* * *

They had just reached the entrance of the lair when Mia's phone went off in her pocket. "Who is it?" Raphael asked her as she pulled it out of her pocket.

Mia shook her head and sighed, "I've got a new text message." She opened the message, and frowned. The message said, "tell me where u r b4 ppl start 2 think u r missing 4 real."

It was from Troy.

What did that mean – what, exactly, was he implying?

Raphael reached to take the phone from her, but she shoved it quickly back in her pocket. He scowled at her. "What is it – is it from that guy again?"

Mia looked up at him. She didn't know Raphael very well, but she did know he would totally freak if he saw the message. "It's not a big deal," she assured him, smiling. Then her phone went off again. She turned away from Raph, and pulled it out again. This time it was a picture message, and she felt her face pale as it loaded.

It was a picture of girl from a newspaper. She was small, blond, and a little younger than Mia with a pool of blood at the base of her skull. Above the picture written in small print, Mia could make out the words, "Missing girl found dead." And below that was a message from Troy that said, "theyll say u r next."

"Are you okay?"

Mia looked up to see April standing a few feet away. Raphael's brothers were in the pit on their feet. They were all staring at her. Mia tried to decide whether she should tell them the truth or make up another excuse, but her heart was pounding in her chest. She couldn't think. She couldn't breathe. She knew Troy was a jerk, but he'd never sent her stuff like this before – what was his problem?!

"Gimme that." Before Mia had a chance to process what was happening, Raphael had snatched the phone out of her hand. He stared down at the phone for a moment. Then he looked up at her scowling, brandishing the phone in her face. "Is this your idea of no big deal?" he demanded. "How many other messages like this has he sent you?"

Mia shook her head. "This is the first –"

"Raph," Leonardo said, jumping over the bench in the pit. He half-jogged up the stairs over to them. "Are you sure you aren't over reacting?"

"See for your freaking self," Raphael snarled, shoving the phone at him.

"No, Raphael –" Mia started to protest but she quickly fell silent when she saw the look on his face.

Leo stared down at the phone. "This sounds like a threat," he said, shaking his head. He looked up at Mia with raised eyebrows. "And you go to school with this guy?"

Mia nodded silently.

"We both do," April added.

"Just give it to me," Raphael said, taking the phone from him. "I'll smash the thing, and she'll never have to worry –"

"Not a good idea, Raph," Donatello chimed in. "That'll have to be turned in to the police."

"He knows where I live!" Mia reminded them frantically. "He's friends with my family." She was starting to feel seriously afraid now.

"So let's just go out and –" Raph said, pushing past her.

Leo grabbed him by the arm and jerked him back down the stairs. "You are not going anywhere, Raphael," he said sternly. "There's no way we can just attack some random human – what if he reports us to the police? Do you have any idea how much attention that'll draw?"

"So, like, what do we do?" Michelangelo asked, peering over at them over the top of a bench.

"Yeah, Leo," Raphael said, pushing his brother away from him. "What the hell do you suggest _she_ do?" He gestured to Mia.

Leo scowled at his brother and sighed, shaking his head. "It's like Donnie said. She'll have to turn it in."

"And I'll watch out for her at school," April added quickly, walking over to them. "It's going to be alright," she said, turning to Mia. "It's going to be alright."

"I can't freak stand this," Raphael said, pushing past her. "I need to go kill something."

Mia watched him go silently.

"Don't worry," Leo said, walking over to her. He put his hand on her shoulder. "I'm going to talk to Master Splinter about this. He'll know what to do."

A/N: Sounds like Mia's weekend with the Turtles isn't going so well. Lemme know what you guys think. R&amp;R!


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I do not own TMNT.

09

That night Mia sat silently down in the pit, listening to Raphael and Leonardo argue with Splinter about the messages on her phone. They were already watching out for her, Splinter said. That would have to do. She didn't understand why Troy had sent those messages to her. Deep down, she had begun to suspect there was something bad about him. Something worse than weed cigarettes and underage drinking after school. But those messages – he had meant to scare her with them. Maybe he thought that if he scared her enough, she'd come running come back to him, begging for his forgiveness and approval. As if. The thing that actually bothered Mia, though, was whether or not he'd try to hurt her when she didn't come running back. What would happen if he did – what would Janie do? Would she care? Would she let him come back to hurt Mia again? Mia didn't say any of this out loud, though. Especially not to Raphael. He seemed so angry and upset that she'd tried to blow it off before. She didn't want to make things worse.

So Mia nodded and tried to smile at Mikey's jokes. She didn't speak during the B-grade late night horror movie that Donnie and April agreed to watch with him. She wanted to stay out of the way and be a good guest, which was hard to do since everyone seemed worried about her. Good guests didn't make their hosts worry. Then after only a few seconds of convincing, she dragged herself off to Raphael's room. She wanted to barricade the door with her text books, but she knew that the Turtles would definitely notice that. Instead, she climbed into Raph's lumpy bed, wielding her heaviest textbook as a weapon.

* * *

It was a little past one AM when Mia finally went to bed. Raphael had talked her into sleeping in his room that night. Hopefully, she'd actually stay in there this time. Then, as soon as she was gone from the pit, he jumped to his feet.

"Where you going, bro?" Michelangelo asked him, looking up from _The Creature of the Black Pond 5: The Creature of the Space Pond_ as he started to walk away from them.

Raphael looked at him over his shoulder, and took his sai from his belt. "Where do you think?"

"Just try not to destroy _too_ much of the equipment," Leonardo told him, staring at the screen.

Donatello nodded. "Yeah, I'd appreciate that, too," he said. "I just got done rebuilding the attack dummy."

Raph scowled at them. "You rather I take it out on you?" He couldn't stop the words from coming out. He'd been in a bad mood all night and they were really starting to push his buttons.

Leo was on his feet and standing in front of him in less than a minute. "Is that a threat?" he demanded, scowling.

"You guys," April said, getting to her feet. "Just knock it off." She turned to Raphael. "We get that you're worried about Mia because she's your friend and I hate to say this, but I think you're overreacting. I know the guy that's been messaging her, and he's bad news, but he's never done anything like this before. He's just bluffing, okay?"

Raphael scowled at her. "You know, April," he spat at her. "The next time I wanna be shrinked, I think I'll just make an appointment." He turned and walked away over to the training arena near Master Splinter's room.

As if that was all that was wrong – that jerk was an easy fix. No matter what Leo said, those freaking text messages weren't anything a good beat down couldn't fix. The real problem was something Raph didn't think anyone could fix. Not even himself.

He didn't deserve this.

Raph sank his fist deep into the punching bag.

He didn't deserve to think about her like that.

He round-house kicked the bag and sent it flying. Then it came back around to him and he punched it hard once, twice – three times. He could hear the old patched up bag and the anchor it hung from groaning.

He didn't deserve to look at her that way.

He high-kicked the bag, his breathing heavier now. His lungs were close to bursting and his face was already bright red cause he was overexerting himself. And because of her.

Why did he have to realize it?

He punched the bag in quick succession – one, two, three, four. Then again. One. Two. Three. Four.

Why did this have to happen to him – with her? She didn't deserve this.

Again, he landed a round-house kick, this time right in the middle of the bag and the seam burst. Sand came pouring out of it onto the floor. Then he moved on to the attack dummy.

He didn't deserve her or anyone, but especially not her. She'd had enough hell in her life. She deserved to be happy. And that was something, Raphael knew, that he could never make her.

* * *

When Mia woke up the next morning, the first thing she did was pack her textbooks. She was about ten minutes into it when Raphael appeared in the doorway. He stood silently, watching her for a few more minutes. Then when she was done, she looked up at him.

"You ready?" he asked her simply.

Mia nodded silently.

"Alright," Raphael said. "Let's go." He led her out of his room and down the hall. "The others are coming with us. Are you cool with that?" he asked, looking down at her.

Mia tried to smile. "Yeah," she said. "Of course."

Raphael paused and turned to look at her. "If you don't want to go home," he said, staring down at her shoes. "You don't have to. I'm not gonna force you to go."

"That's not an option, Raphael," Mia said, shaking her head. "Clara needs me." She pushed past him, and continued on her way down to the pit.

Raph watched her go silently.

Over an hour later, the six of them – Raph, Donnie, Mikey, Leo, April, and Mia – stood beneath the open manhole cover that would take her up to the alley that would lead her back to her street. Mia shifted her bag from shoulder to the other and looked up at the others silently. Her eyes traveled over each of them before they landed on Raphael, who looked away from her quickly. "Thanks," she said, looking back at the others. "For letting me hang with you this weekend."

"Don't worry about it," Leo said, reaching out and putting his hand on her shoulder. "You're welcome to come back." He smiled at her.

"Yeah," Mikey added. "Just be sure to bring pizza next time you decide to drop by."

"Deal," Mia told him, laughing.

"Alright, alright," Raphael said, pushing past the others and starting back down the sewer. "Can we get out of here already? It's not like we're never gonna see her again. Jeez."

Mia looked from Raph to the others and back again. "Just a sec," she promised. Then she took off the down sewer after him. "Raphael – hey, wait up!"

Raphael turned to face her. "Yeah, what?" Then before he could process what was really happening, Mia's arms were around his neck and she was hugging him tightly. He hugged her back awkwardly, avoiding the looks from the others.

"Look, just thank you, okay?" Mia said, pulling away from him. "That's all. Just thank you for being such a good friend and for worrying about me and for inviting me to come stay with you. I wish there were more people like you in the world." She hugged him again, quickly this time. Then she started to walk away from. "Text him once you're back to the lair!" she called back to him.

People? Raphael though, smirking despite himself. Did he count as a person? "Yeah, yeah," he called back to Mia. "See you later!"

A/N: This chapter is shorter than the others, but I hope you guys enjoyed it. Sorry about the emotional, goodbye scene, but I felt like their first goodbye should be a special one. I have a lot in store for the next chapter, so, hopefully, you guys are looking forward to it. R&amp;R!  
Thank you, you guys!  
-Mj


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I do not own TMNT.

10

The apartment building was silent as Mia climbed the stairs that led to her apartment, number 13A. She walked down three hallways, each covered with the same identically horrible floral-print wall paper from the 70s. She had absolutely no idea how she was going to explain where she had been all weekend, and she knew that was just going to make Janie angrier than she already had to be. Obviously, she couldn't tell her that she'd spent the weekend with four mutated turtles and their dad who was a mutant rat. She had, however, come up with a cover for the smell. But that story meant she had no choice, except to go along with the cover story Troy had obviously been keeping up all weekend.

Mia opened the door to her apartment and then immediately froze once she was inside. She looked around silently. There was no one around. The place seemed blessfully empty. She sighed gratefully and dropped her bag on the floor. She sat down on the arm of the couch beside her and began taking her shoes off.

"Have fun?"

"Omg!" Mia jumped when she heard Janie's voice. She looked up and saw her standing in the doorway of the kitchen, hands on her hips and frowning. Great, this was going to be fun. "You're here - why is this place so quiet?"

"Well, Clara's not here, for one thing," Janie said, walking over to the kitchen and sitting down at their tiny, scrubbed wood table. "I sent her to go spend the weekend with -"

"With our mother?" Mia gasped demandingly. "Janie, you can't do that. You know Clara can't be left alone with her - and since when is she so interested in spending time with her anyway?" Her voice filled with venom as she spoke.

"You know what, Mia," Janie said, looking up at her. "You don't get to decide any of this. You're still a child and you're not legally responsible for Clara. I am. And she wanted to spend the weekend with her mom, so I let her and it's not like I'm violating court orders or anything. So how about you just don't stand there, judging me for doing what I think is best for our sister and get on with your little job search, okay?" She smiled smugly at her.

Mia gaped at her silently. She really didn't care. She didn't care about Clara at all - she was just happy to be rid of her. How could Mia have not seen this coming?

Mia shook her head, grimacing bitterly to herself, and grabbed her bag off the floor. She started to walk out of the room.

"Oh, and Mia," Janie called to her when she got to the hall that led to their bedrooms. "Be sure to thank Troy for letting you stay with him. He'll be pretty happy to from you."

Mia looked back at her over her shoulder, and that's when it hit her: Janie knew. She knew she hadn't been with Troy all weekend. And she didn't even care enough to ask for her actual cover story.

"Whatever," Mia scoffed, and she stormed off to her room. She'd never thought Janie could ever disgust her as much as their parents had, but, somehow, she had managed it.

She closed her bedroom door behind her. Then she crossed the room to where her computer was. Sighing, she clicked the sleeping machine into life. Then she saw that she had an Email.

* * *

"Raph and Mia sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" Michelangelo sang, trailing closely behind Raphael as they walked down back the stairs to the lair.

"Shut up, Mikey," Raphael spat at him. "It's not like that. She was just being nice." He had been listening to this all the way down here, and he was running on zip patience wise. He didn't know why Mia seemed to think that he was important like an _actual_ person. But he did know that that hug - whatever she had meant by it wasn't what he wanted it to mean.

Or Mikey thought it meant.

There was no way it could. Not ever.

"Whatever you say, bro," Mikey said, grinning knowingly at him.

Raphael spun around and grabbed Mikey by his neck. "It didn't mean _anything_," he growled at him. "Now, drop it!" He let go of him suddenly and he fell to the floor.

"Hey!" Mikey cried out, jumping to his feet. He turned to Leo. "You just gonna let him get away with that?"

"You kind of deserved it," Leonardo told him, frowning.

Just then, Raph's T-phone sprang into life as it started trilling loudly. He looked down at it. It was Mia. He answered it. "Yeah, what is it - not that guy again, is it?" He crossed the pit and started down the hall to his room.

"No," Mia said, sounding angrier that he had ever heard her. "Janie's been doing a little job hunting for me while I was gone."

Raphael paused outside his doorway, frowning. That didn't so bad actually. "And?" he prodded.

"I just got an Email from someone I used to be friends with," Mia sighed. "He's, like, an older guy, and he's working as a manager at a Bradford Dojo. He says he can get me a job there with pay and free lessons."

"Huh." Raphael went inside his room, closing the door behind him. "Why do I get the feeling that's not his day job?" He knew Mia now. He knew she was going to leave things out - things she didn't him or probably anyone else to know about.

There was a long pause on Mia's end before she finally said, "He's a drug dealer, okay - but it's only weed."

Raph froze. He didn't need to ask to put two and two together: This guy had been _her _drug dealer once a upon time. "Stupid idea," he said. "Absolutely stupid idea. I mean, does the word relapse mean anything to you - there's no way you can go work for this guy." It came out harsher than he had meant it. He knew it wasn't her fault her past was so messed up, but this was exactly the worst thing for her to be doing. Karate lessons with her ex-dealer? It had disaster written all over it.

Not to mention this was a Bradford dojo. As in Chris Bradford. There was no way in hell he was gonna risk Mia getting mixed in that mess, too. It wasn't going to happen. He'd chain her to her couch if he had to.

"I wasn't planning on it, Raph," Mia said, suddenly defensive. "I just - I need someone to talk to, okay!"

"Well, I'm talking to you, aren't I?" Raphael shot back at her. "What do you want me to do - tell you to just go for it and watch what happens?"

"No!" Mia snapped. "I never said that. When did I ever say anything like that?"

Raphael dropped the phone down at his, shaking his head. "Look," he sighed into the phone. "You didn't have to, okay? Just…" His voice trailed off. He knew that he should apologize, but for what - for looking out for her? Like that was gonna happen. Besides, he was right. "Just promise me you won't take that job, okay?"

"Yeah, okay," Mia said. "I won't."

"Good." Then he hung up the phone.

* * *

Mia hung up her T-phone, scowling. She couldn't believe him sometimes. Like he knew what was best for her. As if. He barely knew her.

But, she told herself as she crawled into her bed, at least he cared about her. At least someone did.

The next morning, Clara turned up on their doorstep at five AM.

"Where's your mom?" Mia asked her, letting her inside.

Clara looked up at her, frowning, and shook her head silently. Her eyes were red and puffy, and there were dark shadows beneath. There was no way she should have been left alone with her. It would never happen again. Not with Mia around.

"Alright," Mia said, forcing herself to smile at her. "Just come inside."

She spent the rest of the morning getting Clara ready for school, and dodging Janie. Then when she finally got to her own school, she paused silently.

Troy stood waiting for her at her locker. He looked up at her, smiling, as she approached. "There's a party tonight," he told her. "And you're invited."

Mia stared at him silently, knowing she didn't have a choice. She had to go.

A/N: Hey, guys. Sorry it took me a while to update. I'm actually going through the process of moving and divorcing my husband, so that's been quite time consuming as you can imagine.  
Thank you to everyone who has read this and left reviews. I really appreciate each and every one of them. So, please, keep reading and keep reviewing. I'll have the next chapter up soon.  
Later :)


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I do not own TMNT.

A/N: Hey, guys. I just wanted to say I'm sorry that it took so long for me to upload this. I've just been kept very busy with the drama of the divorce and I moved across the 算ry, and it's just been nuts. I'm sorry about that. Thank you to everyone who has reviewed. They mean a lot to me, and I love reading them. So please keep them coming. R&amp;R, guys!

11

Raphael sat silently on the edge of the training arena, 番ing Leo and Mikey fight it out. It was obvious Michelangelo was gonna win. Leonardo may have been the leader, but he didn't know the 他s as well he'd like to think - he was too busy sucking up to Splinter. 'Sides, Raph was the only one that could really read their younger bro. That's how he was always able to beat him.

Not that it mattered, though. Not that anything he did mattered. Being a good brother or a good fighter wasn't going to 賃 what he actually was. It wasn't going to 賃 the way _she _saw him: As a turtle. A mutant. A freak.

'You're not a monster, Raphael - I've seen monsters.'

Raph felt his grip tighten on the T-phone that hung from his belt as Mia's voice rang inside his head. Back to the sewer beneath the alley near her apartment. Where Mia had run 後 him and thanked him. Then hugged him.

'I wish there were more people like you in the world.'

More people like him. That was exactly the opposite of what the world needed, Raphael 意, scowling. More selfish people wanting 物s they couldn't have and that they had no business wanting. Those weren't the kind of people the world needed. No, what the world needed was more people like her.

People so stupid they'd consider working alongside their ex-dealers just to help their family. Which was the worst idea Raph had ever heard, including all the horrible ideas Mikey came up with on a daily basis. But the fact that she'd even think about it while knowing risks definitely said something about how far Mia was willing to go for her family. It also said that she was an idiot. A huge, huge idiot.

Raphael was definitely going to have to chain her to her couch.

"Raphael?"

The sound of Splinter's voice pulled Raph from his reverie, and he looked up to see his 主 standing beside him, gripping his staff tightly as he 番ed the 他s fight.

"Yes, 主 Splinter?" Raphael asked him.

Splinter stood for a moment, 番ing the 他s silently. Then he said, "Your 友 - your Mia - she has learned to walk the path of light after a lifetime of darkness." He looked down at Raphael. "Be careful with her, Raphael, and help her stay to that path."

Raphael frowned at him. "Or what?" he said. "主, Mia's life is a little messed up, but I really don't -"

"Then why do you doubt her so, my son?" Splinter asked, looking down at him.

Raphael stared at him silently, not knowing what to say.

Splinter sighed and looked back at the fight. "She is a good person indeed, but you must try to guide her."

Raphael was silent for a minute. Then he nodded. "I understand, 主." Then he looked away. As much as he hated to admit it, he knew Splinter was 右. If he wasn't, then Raph wouldn't have even been thinking about that job Mia had been offered at the Bradford Dojo.

* * *

Mia walked silently beside Troy down the sidewalk to her building. He held one of her hands in a death grip, squeezing it uncomfortably. The 他 was in her pocket, her fingers wrapped around the T-phone. Clara walked in 前 of both of them silently, occasionally throwing a glance back at Mia. Mia stared back at her, her dark hair obscuring her frown, hiding her worry.

Troy had never done something like this 前. He had never forced her to do anything she didn't want to do. He had never been like this before. Controlling. Not since she'd gotten off her crutches, anyway. Was it payback?

But for what - for never calling him back last weekend?

That didn't make any sense, Mia 意, as they 発ed up the stairs to her apartment. She took the key out of her pocket and unlocked the 前 door. Troy pulled it open for her. "Get in," he told her.

"C'mon, Clara," Mia said, beckoning to her sister.

Clara followed her silently.

As soon as the door closed behind them, Troy pushed Mia down on the floor and she landed on her knees with a dull thud. Hard. He ripped her backpack off her shoulders. "What are you doing?" Mia yelled at him, 番ing him go through the bag. She sat on the floor, trying to figure out what was happening.

Why was he doing this?

He ignored her and rifled through the books and 紙s that were inside. Then he threw it on the floor when he was done. "I'm helping you get ready for the 党!" he spat at her. He reached down and grabbed her by the neck of her hoody.

"Troy, wha -?" Mia choked out as he yanked the hoodie off of her, the fabric tightening around her neck as he did so. She reached out to take it back from him and then there it was:

The T-phone tumbled out of her pocket and landed on the floor.

Oh, no.

Troy stood, scowling at the phone, hyperventilating, his fists shaking. "What the hell is this?" he shouted, pointing at it. He reached down and grabbed Mia by the neck of her shirt. "Why the hell do you always have that 物 - it's a stupid kids' toy? Isn't it, Mia?" He shook her.

"Why do you care?" Mia asked him in a choked whisper.

An instant later, she found herself on the floor. Her face was bright red and stinging from where he had hit her. An odd sort of sense of deja vu began to fill her as she pulled herself into a sitting position. There was something familiar about this, but she wasn't sure what.

Mia stared at him silently, shocked. Her eyes filled with tears as realization dawned on her. "Clara, go to your room, please. Just go to your room." She said the 詞 without looking at her, never taking her eyes off of Troy's face. Her voice empty of all emotion.

Words her mother had whispered to her once.

Clara who had been standing in the doorway, gaping at the two of them confused nodded silently. Then she turned and walked out of the room, looking back at the scene over her shoulder.

Troy shoved Mia away from him harshly and she tumbled over backwards onto the couch, sobbing openly now. He bent down and picked up the T-phone. "Why do you spend so much time worrying about this 物?" he asked angrily, examining it.

Mia sat silently, praying that he wouldn't actually try to turn the 物 on. She stood up slowly and 発ed to cross the room. "It's nothing," she said, shaking her head. "It's just a stupid toy. It belongs to Clara, so give it back -"

"Oh, my God," Troy groaned loudly. "Oh, my God, Mia! Do you hear yourself - Clara this and Clara that." He scowled at her. "Don't you care about anything else?"

Mia stared at him confused, unsure of what to say. "She's my sister," she said, shaking her head. "She's -"

She was 断 then as Troy suddenly pinned her by her throat to the couch. "What?" he hissed at her, his grip tightening. "What, she is - important to you? What about me, Mia, what about me - aren't I important to you?"

Mia clawed at his grip around her neck, but he was too strong for her. She could never escape his grip. They both knew that. So instead she drew back both of her legs and kicked him in the stomach.

It wasn't very hard. Just enough to push him away from her a few feet and to make him drop the T-phone. Mia wasn't stupid, though. She knew she couldn't get to it - it was too close to him. Instead, she bolted to her feet and ran through the kitchen to her bedroom where Clara was. She ran inside and slammed the door shut behind her.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit," Mia said, knowing that Troy would be there in a matter of 乙s.

Clara stared at her silently, her eyes wide with fear and confusion.

"C'mon!" Mia said, grabbing her by the hand and yanking her into the closet. There was something in there. Something important. Something she should have had with her the whole time. She pulled the doors shut and stood on her tiptoes to reach the small box on the top shelf just as the bedroom door crashed open just outside.

The box tumbled down and Mia grabbed a thin, pink lipstick tube off the floor. She shoved Clara behind her, past all the old clothes and ancient Halloween costumes and then the door was pulled open.

"You aren't even dressed for the fucking 党," Troy spat at her.

"Shut the hell up!" Mia shot at him. "I'm not going to your damn 党." Then she held up the lipstick and a hiss filled the air as she pepper sprayed him to the eyes.

"Ah, fuck, you bitch!" Troy spat, stumbling blindly backwards.

Mia followed 後 him, spraying him until his eyes were bright red and watering. Then she pulled Clara out of the closet. She dragged her sister out of their bedroom and through the kitchen. She grabbed the T-phone as she ran and led Clara out the 前 door. Once they were out of the building, they kept running for five 障s until they reached a nearby little playground.

Mia collapsed on a bench, sobbing and panting. "What do I do?" she groaned. "What do I do?" She looked at Clara for answers.

Clara stared back at her.

Mia shook her head. The neighbors had to have heard that. They were going to think something was up - would they call CPS? Would they believe that Troy had attacked her? It was going be hard enough getting Janie to believe what had just happened. Thankfully, Clara had been there 他wise Janie would never have believed it. Not ever. Mia didn't even believe it. What the hell had that been about?

There was no way this had anything to do with a 党.

Did it?

Mia pulled out the T-phone and 発ed to dial Raphael's number. Then she stopped. Was it really a good idea to call him 右 now?

What if he tried to go 後 Troy?

No way Leonardo would ever let him, but then Raph didn't seem like he was too keen on taking 序s from anyone. Especially not Leo, and there was no way Splinter would ever trust Mia if Raph got found out by another human because of her.

"Damn it!" Mia cried, running her hands through her hair. "What do I do?!"

Clara reached out and tugged her sleeve silently, and Mia looked at her. Her sister pointed silently to a police man sitting across the park.

Mia nodded silently. "右. Police 初. Then Raphael."

* * *

"What the hell is going on?" Jane demanded as she burst through the door of the 局 at the police station, forty-five minutes later. She immediately 円ed on Mia, who was sitting in a chair in 前 of the desk. "What did you do - why was I pulled out of work for this, Mia?"

"I didn't do anything, Janie," Mia spat at her, getting to her feet. "What, do you think I did this to myself?" She gestured to dark the bruise that formed around her neck from where Troy's hands had been. "It was all Troy!"

Clara nodded frantically.

"Oh, my God," Janie said, staring at her in disbelief. "Troy, seriously?" She scoffed and turned to face the 尉 behind the desk. "Look, I'm really sorry about this. She had no 右 to waste your time -"

"Ma'am." The 尉 behind the desk stopped her. He was short man with a thick mustache. "I am familiar with your and your sister, and this young man she is trying to get a restraining 序 又st has a history with our department -"

"He has never attacked anyone 前!" Janie said, cutting the 尉 off. "Mia is just making this up for attention."

Mia stared at her sister in disgust. "I am not!" she said. "Why the hell would I possibly lie about something like this?"

Janie rolled her eyes at her. "Because, Mia, you are a child and you insist on acting like one -"

"Hold on, hold on," the 尉 said, getting to his feet as Mia opened her mouth to argue. "As I was saying, this Troy Evans has a history with our department and according to our records with your sister, Ms. Blake, and I think it would be in everyone's best interest if you signed the restraining 序." He thrust the 紙work at Janie.

Janie looked from Mia to the police 尉 and back 又. Then she grabbed the 紙s and scribbled her name on them. When she was done, she looked back up at Mia and said sternly, "You're grounded and you're taking that job at the dojo until you can find a better one. End of 階." Then she turned and stormed out of the 局.

* * *

Troy stood silently at the end of the beer aisle of the corner store across the street from Mia's apartment building. The dim fluorescent 光s buzzed with life and flickered occasionally. It still wasn't enough to hide how red and swollen his eyes were now. He was practically fucking blind.

"Did you figure it out?" asked the man one aisle over.

"Fuck you," Troy said, grabbing a six-pack off the shelf and pulling his fake idea out of his pocket. "I didn't figure out anything I didn't 既 know - don't mess with Clara. Not on Mia's fucking 番. Not even her toys are safe game."

The man scoffed and appeared at the opposite end of the aisle. He was a tall, thin, Asian guy with a pencil goatee and a dragon tattoo that wound down his arm. "You still think that 物 is a toy?" he asked Troy, looking at him as though he were an idiot.

"Man," Troy said, scowling. "I don't give a fuck about what that 物 is." He walked down the aisle and jabbed Fong sharply in the chest. "All I want to fucking know is why I've been catching your ass 番ing my girlfriend -"

"Oh, that's funny," Fong laughed, cutting him off. "You still think she's your girlfriend."

Troy pushed past him and went up to the cash 籍 to pay for his beer. "Mia's always going to be my girl."

Fong pretended to examine an array of snack cakes beside the door. "Maybe," he said, shrugging. "Or maybe you're losing her."

Troy looked at him. "Wha-?"

"See," Fong went on, "I've heard that the 原 owner of that, uh, _toy _might just have taken an interest in your girl. He's been visiting her, anyway, and this guy…" His voice trailed off and he inhaled sharply. "This guy is a real freak. He's very dangerous, and it seems to me Mia is getting bored with high school boys that shoplift cigarettes and play beer pong 後 school. I mean, you really think you gonna 銘 her with your daddy's bong?" He smirked at Troy.

Troy stared at him silently for a long time 前 he 遂 asked, "What do you suggest?"


End file.
